With Great Power
by Grey11893
Summary: Bitten by a radioactive spider, Shinji Ikari must learn to handle the responsibility that comes with great power. Meanwhile, the mysterious group known as SEELE have a plan to change the world, with something they call Second Impact. AU, no Eva's
1. Prologue

Authors notes:

Been a long, long time. So, I thought I may as well upload this story since it has been in the works since...well, a long time ago. Anyway, it's very different from my usual stuff and I hope the changes aren't too much of a turnoff.

"With Great Power"

Evangelion AU fanfic

The year is 2015 and Second Impact has not happened…yet. Everything is about to change, all beginning with a fateful bug bite. Ikari Shinji, a reluctant participant in this great change, will soon learn that with Great Power, comes even Greater Responsibility.

Prologue

Prepare for something amazing…

Two men sat in the NERV Research Centre, a large building made of steel and glass in the centre of a city known as Tokyo-3.

One of the men sat behind a large desk in his office, a dark and intimidating room at the top floor of NERV. He wore orange tinted glasses, white gloves and had a face as cold and unemotional as stone itself. The other man was far larger than his partner, several times in fact and was completely bald. Oddly enough, this man's body was not overcome with fat, but rather an incredible amount of muscle, some of his subordinates tell a story that their boss only has 2% fat; the rest is an incredible amount of tough muscle and bone.

Lying on the desk, was a file containing a small photo of a blue haired albino girl with red eyes, she had a blank face, completely devoid of emotion.

'My sources have told me you have seen fit to have her moved out of the orphanage, I wonder if this has anything to do with a certain financier threatening to back out?' a smirk appeared on the large man's face.

'Your idea will prove far more profitable in the future, Mr. Fisk,' Gendo replied, his voice still devoid of emotion.

'Well, you know me, always ready to lend a hand to the children.'

Not being as well trained at keeping his expressions hidden, Mr. Fisk's face held a trace of sorrow which he quickly hid with a gaze outside the window, his back facing the head of NERV.

'Of course, public image is important.'

'Glad you see it that way…speaking of which, should you not make at least a few appearances?' Mr. Fisk cast a curious look at the intimidating man who just stared ahead of himself. Gendo had not been seen in public, even though his company was part of the public eye.

'No, it is unnecessary, that is were your skills lie,' Gendo replied.

Realising he was not changing Gendo's mind, Fisk decided a change of topic was required.

'Very well, as you know I am not here to question your lack of interest in public relations.'

'Naturally,' agreed the emotionless man.

'Here it is then.'

The large hands of Wilson Fisk picked up a solid looking briefcase, which he lay down on the desk in front of Gendo.

After typing in a password on the sophisticated lock, the briefcase opened with a hiss. Within the case was a glass container, keeping a strange red orb from the outside world.

'I pray that you keep to your end of the bargain Ikari,' Fisk warned with a stern face.

Eyeing the container that held the greatest source of power on Earth, Gendo let a small, sinister smirk appear on his face.

'Of course…'

[]

Meanwhile, in a less chilling place, two people waited inside of the Tokyo-3 Airport.

'Misato, do I really have to be here?' a tired looking boy with dark hair and grey-blue eyes asked his companion, a bodacious woman with purple hair.

'Trust me Shinji, your hormones are gonna go nuts, you'll thank me later,' Misato winked at the boy, who groaned in response.

Clutching his face in his hand, the boy bemoaned his life. Wasn't being stuck with a slob and rather…open older woman bad enough? Did he really have to have two roommates of the opposite sex? Worse, Misato had kept on saying that this…Asuka girl was his age and incredibly sexy. How was a 14 year old boy going to deal with such temptations?

The two waited at the "Arrivals" portion of the Airport, Shinji stared with a bored expression on his face while Misato waited a little impatiently for their new roommate.

It had been a long time since she had seen the German girl, she wondered if the girl was still a little…aggressive towards boys. Hopefully Shinji's sarcasm would help him survive…although it could also get him killed.

The teenage boy in question suddenly perked up, spotting a flash of long red hair, something he had never seen in real life, there weren't many redheads in Tokyo-3, or at least not any that he knew of.

The exotic hair belonged to a girl, a very, very good looking girl. She had blue eyes, bluer than his own, and a cheeky smile…that was replaced with a rather disturbing look of anger when the girl spotted him staring.

'Hey there, Asuka! Been a while, huh?' Misato called out to the girl, somehow missing the approaching German's death glare at Shinji.

'Uh oh…' Shinji groaned.

Suddenly the girl's expression changed when she noticed Misato.

'Hey Misato, who's this?' the redhead asked.

'This is Shinji, you're new roommate.'

Shyly, Shinji raised a hand and waved.

'What!' the German girl screeched.

Obviously she did not like that idea.

'There is no way I'm staying with a horny teenage boy, what if he tries to take advantage of me!'

'What! I-I'd never do anything like that!'

'Hah, yeah right! You're probably planning it right now aren't you!'

'What…no!'

The German girl's expression soon turned from angered to prideful, which was shown through a smirk and a "superior then you" look.

'Then again, I guess I can't really blame you. All these Japanese boys must have lustful desires when they see a great specimen of Germany.'

Shinji stared at the girl in disbelief. Was that her ego talking? Wow, it must be bigger than…well it was the biggest he had ever seen.

'Oh, calm down Asuka. Shinji is a great cook and he cleans, he's also good at _other_ things too!'

Misato grinned at the effect her words had on the boy, the effect being his face turning bright red.

'Misato!' he groaned.

'Ew, that's paedophilia! Gott in himmel! What the hell is a baka like you doing with an old bag like her?'

'Hey, I'm not that old!'

'Yeah right, and I'm a guy!'

'Well, with that personality…' Shinji began his sentence but he decided against finishing it, unfortunately it was a little too late.

Asuka blinked for a few seconds, before her face twitched and slowly became overcome with rage.

'What did you say?'

'N-nothing…'

Several seconds later, Shinji was running out of the airport, dodging luggage and people as he tried to get as far away from the angry redhead as possible.

Misato laughed, nearly falling to the floor, the apartment was going to be a great place to be with these two around.

[]

Inside of NERV's laboratories, a petite brunette walked in to meet her boss.

'Good morning Sempai!' A bubbly young technician greeted the blonde doctor at the computer.

'Morning Maya, how are the test subjects for the gene splicing?'

'They're mostly doing alright, although most of the rats died off, as well as the locusts.'

The blonde looked at her assistant with a raised brow.

'We had locusts?'

'Well, we did,' Maya said sadly, whilst progress in science was necessary she didn't want to see the animals die.

'Right…what about the others?'

'Well, the mice seem to be okay for now, but there are some signs of minor cancerous growths probably due to the radiation. The only odd one out is the spider…it just isn't reacting in any way.'

Dr. Akagi leaned back in her seat and looked over the reports. They should be making at least some progress, bonding genetics efficiently would definitely aid in the upcoming events that Gendo had planned.

'Keep a close eye on that spider, maybe we're just missing something or it's having a delayed reaction.'

'Alright, Dr. Akagi,' Maya replied.

As the brunette technician and assistant to Dr. Akagi was about to leave, she remembered what day it was.

'Oh your new assistant is arriving today, isn't she?'

Dr. Akagi looked thoughtful for a moment, 'That's right Asuka's plane just arrived I think. Might be interesting to have a young genius around…although, if the stories that Misato told me are true…'

'What kind of stories?'

'Just that she has a rather large ego.'

'Ooh, sounds like a handful, Sempai. If you still need my help I wouldn't mind you asking.'

The doctor smiled at her now ex-assistant.

'Thank you, Maya.'

[]

A blue Renault Alpine screeched to a stop in the parking bay of an apartment complex. The two teenage passengers leapt out of the car to greet the solid, safe ground gratefully.

'Gott in Himmel…I can't believe Misato's driving is actually as bad as I remembered!'

The boy next to her seemed to agree fully.

'You can say that again.'

The driver left the car and looked at her passengers with an annoyed expression.

'What the heck is wrong with you two?'

The two stared at Misato and shook their heads in unison, getting to their feet.

'Hey baka, grab my luggage.'

'What's a baka?'

'That's you! Now be a man and bring my luggage!'

'Hey, I'm not your personal slave! You don't even know me!'

'I'm a lady and you're supposed to be a man! Now prove it!'

Shinji grumbled under his breath and decided to just go along with it. He opened Misato's boot and groaned at the two large bags, which looked really heavy.

'Stupid girl…'

His hands met the material of the first bag and with a grunt of exertion he managed to lift it up, just barely.

'Hey, hurry up baka!' Asuka yelled from the entrance of the building.

'This isn't exactly feathers y'know!' retorted the struggling boy.

'Sissy!' she replied, walking inside and not offering any help whatsoever.

After making two trips up the elevator lugging Asuka's insanely heavy bags into her room, Shinji collapsed in a heap on the couch.

'Finally…done…'

A person emerged from the bathroom, a trail of steam leaving the open door.

'What are you doing lazing about?'

Groggily, Shinji looked towards the voice, about to retort to the annoying German.

'Do you ever-!'

His face went a shade of red, the same colour as the towel Asuka was wearing.

'What are you staring at?'

All she got was Shinji gaping like a fish and snapping his head away from her direction.

'Boring baka.' she said, moving to her room where Shinji had placed her bags.

Slowly the boy's mind rebooted, telling him he had just seen what he thought he had seen. It was not any consolation to him at all, it just made his head hurt. First the girl tries to strangle him for having "perverted" thoughts about her then she does nothing to conceal herself better with her towel.

'Weird.'

Deciding it would be best to let his body receive some rest, Shinji sank down into a more comfortable position and tried to get his mind away from the rather visual thoughts of Asuka and her towel.

Naturally, his luck got him another irritation from the door bell.

'Hey, Shinji can you get that?'

Shinji groaned, knowing he couldn't deny Misato, resigning himself to his fate as a human doormat he went to answer the door.

'Uh, hello?' he inquired to the person at the other end of the intercom.

'Hi, is this the Katsuragi Residence, it's the DHL Movers.'

After checking with Misato if they where expecting someone from DHL movers, which they were, he opened the door and received yet another shock to his system.

The men carried in box after box, filled with God knows what, it was almost never ending.

Shinji was barely able to regain his composure enough to ask what the heck was going on.

'What is all this?'

'Hey, all we do is move we don't ask questions.'

Shinji stared, bug-eyed, at the piles of boxes as the men left. The poor boy barely remembered signing the proof of delivery form he was in such shock.

He stared at the boxes, before curiosity took over, the compulsion to just take a peek at what was inside was soon too great to suppress.

Checking if the coast was clear first, Shinji tenderly placed his hands on the box, slowly opening it. It turned out to be filled with underwear…female underwear.

'Oh good it arrived!'

'Yah!' yelped Shinji, slamming the box closed to keep Asuka from finding out what he had just seen.

The redhead peered at Shinji, making her way over to him, only the box was between them.

'What the hell are you so jumpy about?'

'N-nothing…'

Asuka took one look at her box and spotted that it was partially open, the lid didn't want to stay down it seemed.

'See anything you like?' She asked menacingly.

'Um…no…'

Shinji slowly began to back away, as Asuka took a look inside her box and found out what was in it, revealing what Shinji had most likely seen as well.

'Baka-HENTAI!' she screeched, dashing after him.

[]

The dark office of Ikari Gendo was partially illuminated by the odd appearance of thirteen obelisks being holographically displayed. The head of NERV was currently in an important meeting with the shadowy group called "SEELE".

'So, Ikari how far is Project: Adam?' a sinister voice emanated from the obelisk with the word SEELE-03.

'I have obtained the embryo that was found during the Antarctic Expedition.'

'Excellent.' SEELE-04 said enthusiastically.

'Just remember that we are watching you Ikari, don't try to fool around with something you cannot comprehend.' SEELE-09 warned.

'I'm sure Gendo understands the ramifications of insubordination' SEELE-01 said.

Gendo was barely able to suppress a smirk, 'Of course.'


	2. Chapter 1: One bite, one boy

Chapter 1

"One bite, one boy"

It was a relatively normal, boring day in the Tokyo-3 Municipal High School Classroom 2A.

The teacher was droning on about what happens inside the nucleus, Shinji Ikari didn't really absorb much of what RNA polymerase causes the DNA to do, he was too busy daydreaming.

Life was rather dull, whilst he did enjoy the peace and rather ritualistic like existence he had, he did secretly wish it would be a little bit more…spectacular. The only exciting thing that had happened recently was Asuka Langley Soryu moving into the apartment he and Misato Katsuragi lived in. That was two months ago and Shinji would have rather had Asuka not arrive at all.

The smug German always made him feel so stupid about everything he did; just because she had already finished college at the age of 14 and had a job working under a leading scientist at NERV didn't mean she could act like a smartass to everyone, right?

He sighed in his desk as he thought about he German girl, in retrospect, she wasn't always so bad. Sometimes she would even help him with his homework, at the cost of embarrassment and mild sexual harassment, but on the plus side, she was a really exotic example of the feminine form.

His friends Toji and Kensuke (along with the rest of the straight, male student body) would always have something to say about her legs, chest…and also her temper, which was the only turnoff.

Then there was Rei Ayanami, the strange, blue haired albino. She was a quiet girl and kept to herself most of the time. Shinji noticed that she never really had any friends in the past, but then she suddenly seemed to have integrated herself into a small group of learners a short while ago. As it turned out, Rei was an orphan and had been living a rather tough life, but she had gotten into foster care and they must have been really nice people to have gotten the crimson eyed girl to become so open.

He of course, procured this information from the Class Representative, Horaki Hikari. She was a cute girl with brown hair set in pig-tails, hazel eyes and a formal approach to everything she came across. The representative was ecstatic about telling Shinji about Rei's good fortune and told him that he was a really nice person for caring, causing him to blush and stutter a thank you.

A strange thing he noticed was that Hikari's best friend, Asuka, was not too pleased with Shinji's concern. She was especially snappy at him that day, and a lot more violent.

'Ahem.'

Shinji's mind slowly registered his ancient sensei's throat clearing, a sign of the old man finally taking note on Shinji's lack of interest.

'Um, y-yes sir?'

'Would you mind repeating what you understand about Transcription, Mr Ikari?'

Taking a gulp, Shinji knew he was done for. He had absolutely no idea what transcription was or what it had to do with DNA. He had been to busy explaining to readers the deep inner workings of his world to take notes, unfortunately that excuse would only get him thrown into a rubber room, not that he knew anything about that anyway.

'Uh, well, it is when…the…um…'

Thankfully, the boy was saved by a rather enthusiastic student.

'I know!'

'Yes Ms Soryu, please explain to the class, and this time Mr Ikari, please take note,' Sensei glared at the boy through his glasses, causing another gulp out of reflex.

'Transcription occurs when RNA polymerase causes a DNA strand to split itself into two separate parts so that Protein synthesis may occur.'

'Did you get that Mr Ikari?'

'Um, yes Sensei.'

'Good.'

With the grateful arrival of the school bell, the class of 2A began to leave the school building. Shinji thanked the heavens to be out of that hellhole of a classroom.

'Oh, Shinji,'

On second thought, maybe the classroom wasn't so bad. That sweet, sugary voice could only belong to…

'Yes, Asuka?'

'Since I had to help you get out of trouble during class, I thought it would be nice of you to repay me by doing my chores around the apartment for the rest of the week.'

'…I always do your chores,'

Shinji had to use a little sarcasm now and then, it was his only weapon.

'Only because your silly little hentai brain can't even work out a simple Trigonometric equation.'

There she was mocking his intelligence again. This called for another defensive retort.

'Some of us don't have a science fetish!'

Oh, dear. Once again he let out a humorous thought of his that should have remained hidden. The sound of the slap resonated throughout the hallway, every teenager turned to see what had happened, but upon noticing that a certain German was involved they decided that it would be far more prudent to continue what they were doing before the slap.

'Anything else, baka?'

Asuka was seething with rage. Shinji always had some snide comment or sarcastic remark about her, why did he have to question her genius?

'No,' was the only thing that the boy said.

[]

'Ouch, Shin-man! That the devils work?'

Toji, the jock of the class as always, he referred to Asuka by her nickname.

'Yup,' Shinji mumbled, lightly caressing the small bruise on his cheek.

Asuka always did a number on him, why couldn't he learn to keep his mouth shut?

'Hey, maybe we could hit the arcade this afternoon, blow off some steam,'

Kensuke always had a suggestion to get the topic shifted out of argument territory. Toji didn't accept Shinji's "I deserved it" speech and this led to the two having a bit of a verbal spat. Luckily his quick thinking stopped that dispute from happening.

'Yeah, I feel like shooting something into a million pieces… like Toji!'

Shinji grinned with his little poke at the jock's ego.

'Hey, if you're not careful, the red devils not gonna be the only one hitting you!'

Toji threatened in jest, well, Shinji hoped it was just a joke.

The three stooges joked on their way down the street, but they stopped when they heard someone calling Shinji's name.

It was Hikari, for some reason she had chased them all the way down the street. It must have been for some time, because she was out of breath.

'Are you okay, Hikari?'

Toji suddenly turned into his concerned self that was spawned from his crush on the Class Representative.

'Um, yes, I'm fine. Just out of breath,'

She turned her face away to hide the pink on her cheeks. She seemed to have forgotten why she had come to them as an awkward silence ensued.

'You wanted something Hikari?' Shinji asked.

The Representative immediately went formal to hide her embarrassment.

'Yes, Ikari can you give this to Asuka? She left it in class,'

Shinji took the item that Hikari handed to him; it was Asuka's work notes.

'Um, I'm happy to help, but why couldn't you take it?'

'Because they don't let me into the higher levels of the NERV building and that's were Asuka works at, but I thought since you knew the head of security…'

Well, it did make sense. Misato would most definitely allow Shinji in.

'Okay, I guess I'll have to meet up with you guys a little later then.'

'Good luck, Shin-man.'

'Sayonara Shinji!'

Kensuke and Toji then headed down the street, in the opposite direction of Shinji's new destination.

'Thanks Shinji!' Hikari waved him off as she made her way home.

[]

The dark haired boy stared at the enormous skyscraper he had stopped in front of; its glass and steel frame screamed its sophisticated and advanced design. It was the perfect place for Asuka to work he realised.

Shinji just hoped he wouldn't see a certain father of his there, that man always made his blood run cold. He was certain flowers died as soon as the chilly head of NERV walked passed.

Stepping inside, Shinji was not too surprised by the bustling; he had been here a few times in the past. What did surprise him was a certain someone with blue hair talking to one of the security guards at the desk.

Rei was smiling and happy when she talked to the guard, who looked at least 50 with his greying hair and a few wrinkles, his spectacles completed this look. The guard chuckled at something Rei had said.

Maybe this man was Rei's foster parent?

As if sensing his presence, Rei turned to spot Shinji staring at her. She smiled faintly with a minor blush.

'Hello, Ikari,' she called out in greeting.

Finding himself overcome with sudden anxiety under the gaze of those crimson eyes, he smiled back weakly and barely managed to greet her back.

'H-hello, Rei,' Shinji greeted her back nervously.

The guard looked at him curiously, but the gaze didn't hold any malice.

'Who's this Rei, a friend of yours?'

'He is a classmate of mine.'

Seeing he should be more polite, Shinji greeted the man as well.

'Shinji Ikari, sir.'

The guard looked at the boy with surprise in his eyes.

'Ikari? Are you related to…?'

The security must have seen the obvious connection to the head of NERV.

'Unfortunately,' Shinji replied.

He hated being related to the stone cold Gendo Ikari, but it was unavoidable when his father was famous for his work in weapons technology. Thankfully, the old man picked up on this.

'Hey, don't worry about what he does. It is who you are and what you do, that makes you you're own man, not what some guy with the same name does.'

Shinji smiled slightly, he hadn't thought of it that way.

'Thanks, Mr…?'

'Hotaru, Ben Hotaru. I'm Rei's guardian.'

The girl in question looked at her legal guardian with a confused face, which Shinji thought was rather cute.

'Wouldn't father be a more sufficient a title?'

Mr Hotaru smiled warmly at Rei's question before happily answering her.

'Yes it would, if you feel that it would be a more sufficient title'

Shinji looked at Rei with a smile of his own, she must have really liked Mr Hotaru to be so…well, happy. He couldn't remember a previous time that he had seen her expressing this much emotion in school or on the rare occasions he saw her in the store. His smile was replaced by a frown when he remembered why he was here.

'Sorry, I've got to see Ms Katsuragi. I need permission to give someone their work notes on the higher floors.'

Rei seemed saddened by this; she had been meaning to ask Shinji something important.

'Of course Shinji, just go right ahead where you need to go. I'll tell the others that you're allowed to go on, just don't steal anything!'

He chuckled at his joke; he seemed to be very trustworthy.

'You don't need to do that sir, you could get in trouble.'

'Nonsense, go on in. We don't need to waste the time we have on paperwork.'

No wonder Rei liked this man, he was awesome! With that conclusion made, Shinji made his way to the elevator after thanking Mr Hotaru and saying goodbye to him and his daughter.

The elevator had an exceedingly annoying tune playing, but Shinji barely took notice of it. He was too busy thinking about Rei being so happy. She looked like…an angel when she smiled, it was the only way he could describe it.

This left him with a goofy smile and he only noticed that he had reached Asuka's work floor at the last moment. He quickly slipped through the closing doors and made his way down the hall, his eyes taking note of the shut door with a notice reading "no unauthorized personnel are permitted entrance", he wondered what went on in that room.

His mind soon returned to its defensive state when he recalled that he was about to see Asuka. He would need to keep his mouth shut firmly this time. Taking a deep breath to calm his nerves, he opened the door.

There she was, the redheaded German genius, working on some test tubes and taking notes on whatever she was doing.

'Asuka?' Shinji called out.

She peered at him in confusion, minor annoyance and something else, but he wasn't too sure what that something else was exactly.

'What on earth are you doing here?'

Biting back a comment at her hostility, Shinji held the book towards her.

'Hikari asked me to give this to you; you left it in class or something.'

Asuka looked surprised and Shinji swore he saw the ghost of a smile when she noticed that it was her work notes. The surprise didn't last long, as she quickly composed herself.

'Tell Hikari I say thanks,' she said nonchalantly.

That's it? He walked all the way here, when he could have been having fun at the arcade, and all he got was a lousy thanks addressed to Hikari? He kept his mouth tightly shut, she could really be unappreciative.

'What are you waiting here for baka?' she asked in that "superior than you" voice.

That was the last straw.

'A thank you would have been nice instead of an order!'

'Why should I thank you? What'd you do that deserves a thank you from me?'

Clenching his hand into a fist, he contained the urge to hit the German.

'Just forget it. I wouldn't expect anything more from a snob like you!'

With that said he made his way out the lab, leaving a taken aback Asuka.

She had never seen Shinji like that before. Maybe he was right, she had been a bit mean to him and all he ever really did up until now was act sarcastic.

She shook the thoughts of sympathy away. It didn't matter anyway, he was just a little boy and she was a mature, grown up. She had a job and brains and…and that was it…

Shinji was still boiling with rage as he walked down the hallway to the elevator. Stupid Asuka, why did she have to be so stuck up about everything? What made her act like that? Was she just like that or did something happen? Why did he care anyway?

He stopped questioning his brain when he saw the door to the "no unauthorised personnel" room open. He shook off his curiosity; he didn't want to get Mr Hotaru into trouble so he continued to walk. Barely two steps later, he heard glass smash inside the room and someone cursed from the inside.

Inching closer to the door, he peeked inside. Inside the room were rows and rows of small glass containers, at the back of the room stood two men. The two men were putting something into a bag, and both looked rather nervous.

Wanting to get within earshot, Shinji crawled around the room, hiding behind the glass containers.

'Okay, I think that's it.'

'Man, I hope the big K's gonna be generous when we bring this stuff back to him.'

'Yeah, that'll be the-'

They froze. Shinji froze as well. His foot had just crunched the glass that they must have broken. He knew he was done for.

'I think that-'

'Yeah, come on I got a silencer…'

Shinji realised much to his horror that they were planning to kill him. He was about to make a run for it, but he instead yelled in pain something stung his neck. It was like someone had poked him with white hot metal, the pain made him fall to the floor and groan as he tried, feebly, to swat away whatever was causing his agony.

In the part of his rational mind that wasn't overridden with pain, it told him he had just given away his position and that he was most definitely going to die now.

He was lucky that his cries of pain had been heard by a passing guard.

'Hey, back up!' the guard yelled aiming his handgun at the intruders.

The two thieves fired their weapons first, sending bullets pinging all over the room. The guard had leapt out of range and called for backup, praying that they would get there soon. The fire fight was soon moved out of the room as the gunmen fled.

Shinji lay there on the floor, writhing in agony, forgotten. He had regained just enough control over his aching body to begin crawling towards the door, as he made it out of the doorway he barely registered the gasp of shock coming from a red blur of colour that rushed to help him. As his mind slowly began shutting down, he felt the tickling sensation of a small spider crawling off his neck…


	3. Chapter 2: Something that shouldn't be

Chapter 2

"Something that shouldn't be"

[]

Grey-blue eyes slowly took in the shapes and colours that surrounded them. They spotted a familiar ceiling and also a concerned person. Was that…?

'Baka,' a soft voice said.

It was Asuka. She was looking down at him, with concern? Maybe this was just some insect bite induced delusion. There was no way Asuka would be worried about him, especially after what he said to her.

'Ugh…A-Asuka, what happened?'

'Two guys broke into NERV and stole some research, they got away.'

She seemed to be unsure how to act for a short while, before thinking of something to say.

'I…saw that you had fainted and…well, I'm not that much of a snob.'

Shinji looked up at her apologetically, if she was here then she really wasn't a snob, or at least not as much as he originally thought.

'I'm sorry about that, I was…'

'Don't be such a wuss! I made you angry and you said what you thought, end of story!'

She didn't look very happy with his attempted apology.

'Uh…sorr-'

He received another death glare and decided on an alternative.

'Yeah, that's what happened.'

'Good.'

Shinji then wondered just how he got back home, since he doubted Asuka would have dragged him all the way to the apartment.

'How did you get me home?'

'Misato and a security guy helped you into her car and we took you home.'

'Oh, where's Misato now?'

'She wanted to stay, but she had to fill out a ton of paperwork because of the robbery.'

'Heh, she's not gonna be too happy when she gets home.'

'No duh, probably gonna drink her liver away.'

The two shared a laugh at their guardians drinking habits, before Asuka looked at Shinji with uncertainty.

'…uh, how are you…you know…feeling?'

The boy looked at her quizzically, what had changed Asuka? She was still Asuka, but she seemed more…concerned about others than usual. Thinking on her question, he realised that he felt rather…good, great even.

'Great, strangely…'

'Well, you are weird baka, so you must be alright.'

They both chuckled softly and smiled, staring at each other again. Shinji lay on the bed shifting uncomfortably; it was a rather awkward position.

'Oh, and Shinji?' Asuka looked at him menacingly as she spoke.

'Um, yes Asuka?'

'If you ever faint at my work again, I'm gonna kill you.'

Well, that destroyed the tender moment. Asuka started for the door, making Shinji rapidly think of something to get her to stay.

'Asuka!' he called out.

She stopped; her hand on the door slowly retracting as she turned to look at Shinji.

'Yeah, what is it?'

'Thanks for helping me, you're a…a good friend.'

For several seconds she stared at him in disbelief; then she quickly finished opening the door to make an exit.

'Thanks baka,' was her soft reply.

Shinji didn't catch what she said nor did he see the broad smile that Asuka wore as she left. Feeling a strange and sudden onset of exhaustion overwhelm him, he drifted back into a peaceful slumber.

[]

In the office of Gendo Ikari yet another meeting was taking place.

'So, I hear that those two fools were not quite finesse when they carried out our deal.'

It was Wilson Fisk again, sitting opposite the cold head of NERV.

'No, but it was done at least. I hope you're happy with what you've got.'

A small smile grew on the large man's face, 'Yes, of course. It will come in handy if we ever need to fend off SEELE.'

'Good.'

Wilson studied the emotionless man for several seconds, trying to see if there was anything more that Gendo wished to add.

'I hear that your son was injured during the theft.'

'He merely fainted, that is all.'

The large man frowned and with held his contempt; didn't Ikari know what he had?

'Well, I must be off then. I have an empire to run.'

'Fisk.'

Wilson turned to face Gendo properly.

'I require a favour.'

'I'm afraid I've already run out. You have Adam, and you promised me a place in the scenario.'

'This favour concerns the scenario, as well as Ayanami.'

He didn't show it outwardly, but inside his body Wilson felt a sense of dread forming. What Ikari was about to ask, he knew it was going to be something he would not like at all.

[]

Two eyes snapped open in, they gleamed an eerie red in the darkness of the room. Shinji sent his gaze to his alarm clock, the glowing red numbers reading 02:15 AM. His body felt like an inferno, sweat poured down his face as he felt…something…inhuman poking in his mind. It was like he could tell what was happening all around him, in his environment and beyond it. The area was filled with danger hotspots and safe zones, somehow his mind was telling that this spot was safe and this spot was dangerous. He didn't question this alien feeling; he went along with it due to the immense nervousness he was feeling. He had to get out of here. It was too enclosed; he could be killed by a predator. Shinji was too jacked up to think, what predator? He was also too high on adrenalin to ask why everything had a green tint or why he could see so clearly at 2 AM.

He left the apartment, dodging beer cans left by Misato with dexterity that he had never possessed.

Nearing the elevator, the hairs on the back of his neck stood on end, his mind tingling. That wasn't a safe place, the stairs, more space to move and he won't be boxed in too much. He wouldn't be in danger.

Before his brain could register the change in space, he had already made it to the ground floor and was out the building.

His rapid breathing slowed down somewhat when he was out in the open street, but he knew this wasn't safe either. Bigger predators were out there and would spot him; he was in a kill zone standing in the middle of the road.

The boy wandered down the road, staying close to the darker, safer corners that the alien instincts led him to. Soon he was in the more residential areas, where proper houses stood. He continued down his path, following the safer routes, never questioning where he was going or why.

Suddenly, his senses flared, something was following him, predator or prey?

Whipping himself around he found out that it was neither an aggressor nor food, it was…a friend?

Seeing the form of Rei Ayanami, his instincts stopped guiding him, they didn't know what a friend was.

'Ikari, what are you doing here at this hour?'

Shinji blinked several times, not noticing that the world had lost the green tint and had become much darker. He was more concerned with the fact that he couldn't answer Rei's simple question.

'I…I don't know…'

She tilted her head to one side and studied him, trying to figure him out. Feeling uncomfortable with the silence, he spoke first.

'Wait, what are you doing here?'

'I live here,' she answered simply.

'Oh, well, what I meant was, what are you doing up at this time of the night?'

She looked at him with a trace amount of surprise, but she composed herself and answered.

'I had trouble sleeping, so I sat outside my home and looked at the stars as I usually do. I then spotted you walking and was concerned, you seemed…odd.'

Did Rei just call him odd? Okay, well she did have a point.

'Oh, well, you shouldn't be out here on your own, it's not safe.'

'I am not on my own, I am with you'

Man she was good at twisting words.

'No, I mean that you shouldn't be out at this time when you're on your own.'

'This area has the least amount of crime occurring in the whole city'

'It does?'

Something told Shinji that that was an incredibly general view of the area; it was so open to predators. Before Shinji had a chance to think more on what his brain was saying, Rei asked him something that made him lose his train of thought.

'Would you care for some tea?'

'I…um…I don't want to impose…'

Rei looked somewhat downcast by having her invitation being turned down. Spotting that sad look, Shinji did what anybody would do.

'But so long as you don't mind…'

Having time to gather his thoughts, Shinji realised just how lucky he was. He had slept in his clothes, sure they were sweaty and dirty, but at least he wasn't walking around with Rei in his boxers; that would give anybody the wrong idea.

They both stopped outside of Rei's home, a nice looking place with a small garden and a patio which was where they stood.

'Um, are you sure we won't be disturbing anybody?'

'My foster parents do not mind, they understand that I sometimes need to gather my thoughts at night.'

That did sound like something Mr Hotaru would do.

The two teenagers entered the home, Rei made a beeline for the kitchen while Shinji took a seat at the table.

Rei's home seemed to give off a cosy and relaxed vibe; unlike Misato's apartment were tension and sexual harassment ran rampant.

'Here is your tea, Ikari.'

'Oh, thanks Rei…and you can call me Shinji. It's only fair if I call you by your first name.'

'Very well then, Shinji,' she said with a small smile.

His name was pleasant to voice out loud, she found. It must be because Shinji was a pleasant person.

The two teenagers sat there in silence, not an awkward silence, but a peaceful one. Shinji found that just drinking the tea made the final strands of edginess that lingered disappear to…wherever they had come from.

'Shinji?' a surprised voice called out.

Never mind.

'Oh, uh, hello Mr Hotaru I was…uh, just…in the neighbourhood.'

The old man looked at him suspiciously, but his warm smile took over from the suspicion.

'I see…'

[]

The apartment door to the Katsuragi Residence creaked as it was opened very slowly. Shinji popped his head around the corner, looking into the darkness to see if anyone was awake as he would have a lot of explaining to do. He shut the door at the same pace, keeping his noise level just as quietly as it had been; unfortunately his hand seemed to hold onto the knob for too long. With an almighty crack, the knob was ripped from the door, sending bits of its insides bouncing onto the floor.

'Oh crap!'

What on earth was going on? He had already cracked two of the Hotaru's tea cups because of his clumsiness and now he had demolished the apartments doorknob.

He didn't have much longer to dwell on his accidents, as his body suddenly went onto autopilot, spinning itself out of the way of an oncoming projectile. A shoe it turned out.

'PERVERT!' cried out the unseen foe.

With autopilot engaged, Shinji's body reacted with astounding agility and grace, dodging all of the attacks that were sent his way by an enraged (and secretly scared) redhead.

'Wait! Asuka, it's me!'

Asuka stopped attacking when she recognized the voice. What was Shinji doing coming home at 5 AM?

The lights went on, as a grumpy, tired voice called out.

'What the hell is going on now?'

It was Misato, most likely suffering the aftermath of her late night binge.

'This baka was sneaking back inside!'

'Sneaking back? Where did you go Shinji?'

He felt his face reddening; he couldn't tell them where he had been. Misato would tease him for an eternity and Asuka…he shivered. She would probably do some unmentionable things to him.

'I…I was…just going out for a walk to…to clear my head.'

Misato's face softened, she guessed he was still stressed out by the robbery.

'Well, that's alright Shinji. I understand, just try not to be so…' Misato stopped suddenly. She stared, her mouth agape.

'What-what happened to the door!'

Asuka and Shinji stared at the pieces on the floor, then at the hole in the door. Asuka looked at Shinji strangely, while Shinji looked down at his hands in disbelief.

'I…um…guess I…pulled too hard?'

The boy shrugged as he finished his sentence. How on earth did he pull the doorknob from the door? He was very average in everything; that included his schoolwork and his physical prowess…or lack thereof.

'Uhn, well, you're going to have to fix it today, okay?' Misato explained tiredly.

'Of course Misato, I'm sorry.'

With a yawn, the head of Security at NERV headed back to her room.

'Night…'

'Good night.' The boy just went along with the time, not wanting to inform the purple haired woman that it was actually morning.

Shinji turned his head to find Asuka staring at him with narrowed eyes.

'W-what?' he asked.

She seemed about to ask or say something, but thought better of it.

'You baka,'

Without another word, she returned to her room. Being a growing boy with raging hormones, Shinji took the time to watch her legs as she went along. Her sleeping attire consisted of a large T-shirt and panties, so her legs were well on display.

He shook his head and turned his gaze elsewhere, groaning inwardly at his perverted thoughts.

Staring down at the doorknob on the floor, with an eyebrow raised; he thought back and realised that a number of weird things had been going on. His strange urges to leave his "unsafe" room and of course breaking things that he normally wouldn't break, especially not by accident.

'Weird…'

[]

Shinji hummed a happy tune as he made breakfast. Hanging out with Rei and her family was really great. Mrs. Hotaru was equally as nice as her husband and was not at all worried about the presence of a stranger in her home, well, after Rei and Mr Hotaru vouched for him.

They had all discussed things like school, and Mr. Hotaru told some funny stories about work. There was even one that included Asuka setting the lab on fire, Shinji just hoped that she would never find out that he knew about that one.

During all of this, Shinji had observed a side of Rei that he had never seen before. She was so full of life at home, when at school she still remained a quiet and somewhat mysterious person, it was nice to see her being happy.

It sort of reminded him of how he was a couple of years ago. When his mother had died, his father just left him in the care of a stranger. It was not so bad, but the guy didn't really bother with Shinji that much. When he was older he had gone to visit his father, hoping that he could be reunited and have a happy ending or something like that. His father just had his ten year old butt kicked out of the boardroom (in retrospect, it probably wasn't a good idea to interrupt an important meeting). He was lucky that the person who had taken him out of the room was Misato, who actually showed some concern for him. She promised to be his friend and checked up on him from time to time and a year or so later, she adopted him.

Then he became much happier with his life, he opened up, showed his sarcastic streak and started to interact more with the kids at school.

When he thought about it that way, he did get his happy ending and Rei got hers too.

'What are you so happy about? Kill another door?'

Ah, Asuka was awake…wonderful.

'No…just happy.' he replied.

'I hope you're not thinking about anything perverted.'

Shinji rolled his eyes as he set the food on the plates.

'No, I'm not. Should I be?'

'You can't fool me; I know you were staring at my legs last night!'

His face went red. How did she know?

'You were!'

Oh damn it! She tricked him!

'N-no, I was just…I wasn't!'

'You hentai! Just finish the food; I'll deal with you later!'

Shinji growled inwardly, why did she have to do all these Jedi mind tricks on him anyway?

Asuka went to the bathroom, huffing a little. Shinji cringed when he heard her enter; she was not going to be happy.

'What the hell is toothpaste doing all over the wall!'

The redhead stuck her head out from the bathroom, her face the epitome of anger and confusion.

The raven haired boy shrugged, 'I…squeezed too hard.'

Dumbfounded, Asuka shook her head and decided to just get her morning routine over before Shinji did some other weird thing.

The two took a seat at the table and started eating; at least Asuka wouldn't kill him now. She didn't cook or was too lazy to, and Misato…well, lets just say she couldn't cook and leave it at that.

His mind somehow made its way to the topic of the robbery and he remembered being stung by…something.

'Hey, Asuka?' he asked.

'Mm hmm?' she mumbled, her food was still in her mouth.

'What was in that room…the one that the robbers where in?'

Swallowing her food before speaking, she looked at him oddly, but decided it wouldn't hurt to tell him the basics.

'It had most of our genetic research, the test subjects. Mostly just insects, like flies and stuff like that…'

'Genetic research?' asked the curious boy.

Asuka rolled her eyes at Shinji's simplicity. Honestly, how did he not know what she was talking about?

'Gene Splicing, do you know what that is?'

The boy shook his head.

'We take genes from one species and integrate it into another species.'

'Um, so you take…what exactly?'

She growled at the boy.

'We take things that one animal can do and put it in another animal to see if we can make that animal do the same, do you understand now!'

'Well, why didn't you say that first?'

'I did! You're just too stupid!'

'Some of us need to work at school!'

'Hah, you wouldn't know that! I do almost all of your science and maths!'

'No, you just hang around me so you can make fun of me!'

Asuka stopped herself from saying anything more. There was another reason that she hung around Shinji, but there was no way she could tell him. She had to mislead him.

'Yeah…so?' she said.

'You know, I think I was right back then, you are a snob!'

'Well…fine! Maybe I am, and next time you can drool on the floor in the foetal position by yourself next time because there is no way in hell I'm helping you!'

With that, Asuka retrieved her school bag, stomped to her shoes and slammed the door shut on her exit.

Sitting alone at the table, Shinji slumped back into his seat. Staring at his food, his stomach growled, but he felt really guilty about causing the fight. He shouldn't have been so stupid, Asuka had helped him and…now that he thought about it; she must've taken time off work to help him. What kind of friend was he?

'What is it with you guys and the poor door?'

Great, now Misato was awake. He'd never hear the end of this.


	4. Chapter 3: That tingling feeling

Author Notes: Thanks to readerjunkie, KL and 1337 for your reviews and thanks to those who favourited and/or put alerts!

Chapter 3

"That tingling feeling"

A dark haired boy slowly made his way down the road, heading towards the Tokyo-3 Municipal High School. The boy was busy wondering how he was going to apologize to Asuka, without getting her to blow up in his face.

He hadn't really meant what he said, but he just hated it when Asuka talked down on him like that.

Misato hadn't helped him at all. All she did was tease him about it.

'_Don't tell me, you two had a lovers quarrel?'_

He heaved a sigh, why did he always get the teasing?

Suddenly, his hairs stood on end again. Someone was following him.

'Hello Shinji.'

He spun around, and found Rei looking at him with a small smile. He smiled back.

'Morning Rei, how are you?'

'I am fine, are you unwell? You seemed to be…distant.'

'Uh, well, I…'

Shinji wasn't sure if he should unload all of his troubles on Rei, they had only just started hanging out. The blue haired girl came to a conclusion as to why Shinji was reluctant to speak.

'If you require me to keep something secret, I will do so.'

He grinned, and decided he could trust her.

'Thanks Rei. You want to…um, walk with me to school?'

'That would be satisfactory.'

The two teens walked on, Shinji told Rei about his dilemma with Asuka. The blue haired girl seemed a little downcast at the topic, but she did pay attention nonetheless.

'So, I just…well, I want to make it up to her.'

'Perhaps she is the one who should change her attitude. She should be more aware of how her actions and words can affect others, not just herself.'

That did make sense, but even he wouldn't tell Asuka that, the repercussions of such an act would be…disturbing.

'I guess, but maybe if she sees that I'm really sorry…'

Looking up, he noticed that they had reached the school.

'…we're here. Thanks for the talk Rei, you're really smart.'

Rei's eyes widened slightly and her pale face warmed up.

'I…thank you Shinji, you are…very…pleasant to be around.'

'Heh, um, thanks. See you later.'

The shy boy moved onwards to the school.

'Yes, later.'

A smile crept onto Rei's face as the boy left.

[]

A short moment ago…

A locker slammed shut, an angry German tossed a bundle of letters into the dustbin.

'Stupid perverts! Stupid baka!' she growled.

Everyone within range made sure that they kept a safe distance away, not wanting to get caught in the crossfire. Except for Hikari, Asuka's best and perhaps only friend.

'Asuka, what's wrong?'

'Nothing,' was the only reply she got.

The German girl's answer was riddled with rage. It was incredibly obvious that something was most definitely bothering her.

'I'm your friend Asuka, come on tell me.'

'It's nothing Hikari, just…work.'

Hikari took a deep breath, preparing herself as she had to ask a question that was going to cause a volatile reaction.

'Is this about…Shinji?'

'Hah, why would I waste my time with that baka?'

'Well, you were just complaining about a baka, not baka's plural.'

Asuka groaned inwardly. Why did Hikari have to be so observant?

'It doesn't matter! The stupid baka just doesn't appreciate anything, that's all!'

'What doesn't he appreciate?'

Damn it, why did she have to say that out loud? Asuka rolled her eyes in annoyance at her mishap.

'When I kindly give up the time that I should be using to do work to help him with his simple homework, he always has to have a stupid sarcastic remark about it! There, happy?'

'Well, maybe that's just what he does when he's nervous. In class I notice he's only like that when he's feeling under pressure, especially around girls.'

Hikari wasn't lying, Shinji had done that quite a bit during the last two years at school and she also knew that there was something between the two roommates, although the roommates in question were too stubborn to admit it.

'Humph, well…that's no excuse! Just because he can't handle my beauty isn't justification for being a jerk!'

The pig-tailed girl sighed; she highly doubted that the problem was so simple.

'This isn't about his sarcasm is it?'

'It…it…don't change the subject!'

'I'm not.'

Realising she was caught; Asuka just decided she may as well tell Hikari a partial truth.

'Alright fine, I'll tell you. Let's start heading to class so long.'

The two friends made their way out of the locker area, heading to pass the entrance of the school as they headed to their classroom.

'Well, what is it really Asuka?'

'There was a robbery at NERV and…'

'WHAT! Is Shinji okay? I-I asked him to take your notes and-and oh no!'

'Hikari, will you calm down? The baka just fainted outside of my lab; he was alright, just drooling on the floor.'

'Phew, that's good. If he had been hurt I don't think I could have forgiven myself.'

'Please, the baka just fainted dead away. I was the one who had to call for help and then I had to watch over him at home.'

Hikari stared at her friend, blinking in disbelief.

'You…you took time off work to stay with him? Asuka, that is so…'

'Don't say it! I-I just…they let us go home after the police came, so I had nothing better to do!'

Hikari grinned and knew exactly why Asuka had stayed with Shinji. Her blush said it all.

'Right…'

'Don't romanticize something that isn't, and will never be, romantic. There is nothing cute, sweet or sappy about a silly little baka fainting!'

'But you stayed with him, you totally-'

'I DON'T!'

Asuka's scream of denial caused heads to turn, making her angrily wave a fist to threaten them. Why did Hikari think that she would like a…a baka like Shinji? What made him worth her…her…time?

The German girl stared at the entrance of the school, her mouth open as she stared on in disbelief. Hikari looked in the direction that was causing Asuka's sudden silence and she held her face in horror. Baka Shinji!

He was walking into school, talking to Rei…and they both seemed very friendly with each other, smiling shyly and lightly blushing as they went their separate ways.

'Asuka?' a worried Hikari asked.

Hikari noticed that her friend had stormed off already. Groaning internally, the Class Rep wondered why she had to be right.

[]

Class was horrific for Shinji. For some reason he was nervous wreck, he couldn't sit still in his seat. His brain was deluding him into thinking that it was not safe to be still when he was so visible.

As if that wasn't bad enough, Asuka kept glaring him, causing the hairs on his neck to stand up as well as a weird tingling sensation in the back of his head to go off.

'Yo, Shin-man! You okay?'

Toji wondered what was going on with his friend. Ever since he had gotten into class he had been acting strangely.

'Y-yeah, I-I'm just…feeling sick that's all.'

'Just ask the Class Rep if you can go to the bathroom or something.'

Trust Kensuke to come up with a logical solution…when it didn't involve conspiracy theories or giant mecha's.

Shinji decided that would be the best course of action, so he sent a message to Hikari's laptop.

The Representative saw the message from Shinji and decided this would be a valid excuse to talk to him. Turning around she nodded to the boy, and wondered what was causing him to be so…strange. He was sweating and seemed on edge, another thing she'd have to ask.

Shinji was all too happy to be able to leave the danger zone, but he wondered why Hikari was getting up as well. Maybe she was going to explain to the secretary?

The two classmates left the room, and headed down the hallway after the door was quietly shut.

'Shinji, you need to stop being so…Shinji?'

He snapped his head back to Hikari, who he had left behind. Somehow he had made it all the way to the stairs already.

'Um, s-sorry Hikari, I-I'm not feeling so great…'

'I can see that, what's wrong exactly?'

'I…I don't know, I just feel…weird. Probably just a bug or something…'

'Yeah…look Shinji, what's going on between you and Rei?'

The nervy boy looked at Hikari in surprise.

'N-nothing, we just…well, we're friends, I guess. I saw her at NERV talking to her foster parent and well…'

'Oh, okay…look Shinji, Asuka is…she really…uh; I don't really know how to put it…'

Shinji came to his own conclusion as to what Hikari was going to say, it was the wrong one of course.

'I know, I'm being kinda ungrateful…it's just that she makes me feel so…well, stupid when she helps me. I just react and…I don't really mean it.'

'Uh, well…I shouldn't be telling you this, but I think Asuka only does that because she doesn't really know how else to act.'

'What do you mean?'

Hikari shifted uncomfortably, she was sort of betraying her friends trust, but it was for a good cause.

'Think about it, she never really had a normal life. She's a genius, the only reason she's in our school is to learn the kanji. I think Asuka only knows how to react in a way to make people feel small because she was just a little kid in college with a bunch of twenty year olds, it's like a defence mechanism. Now she's with her own age group, but she only knows how to deal with people who probably looked down on her. I guess she just tried to level the playing fields back then.'

He hadn't thought about it like that, maybe when he was nervous around her, Asuka was feeling just as awkward around him. It did make sense, even though it seemed unbelievable to think that the confident German college graduate actually felt nervous from time to time.

'Wait, why would she feel nervous around me?' the oblivious boy asked.

Hikari stared at Shinji, blinking several times. How could he not see it?

'Isn't it obvious?'

'What exact-'

He stopped; a chill ran down his spine. Something was wrong, there was danger somewhere close. He grabbed a surprised Hikari and pulled her to the side.

'Shinji what are you doing!'

Before the boy could say anything more, a ball flew past the spot Shinji had just been standing.

Hikari looked at the field, seeing a class was having Phys Ed. Her mind slowly remembered that Shinji was holding her rather tightly, and he must be stronger than he looked, because she could feel a lot of muscle. She stopped her train of though there, blaming hormones and then her face went slightly pink.

'Uh, Shinji, you can let go now.'

'S-sorry, guess I was just…lucky.'

How did he know that the ball was going to hit him?

Shinji was also unsure as to how he knew that the speeding projectile was about to hit him. He really needed to lie down.

[]

Making his way back to the apartment, Shinji remembered that the door still required fixing. He looked down the street and spotted the hardware store, deciding he may as well get the door done and out of the way.

He heard the chime of the bell that was connected to the store door. For some reason he was feeling edgy again, but why? It was just a bell.

The nervy teenager made his way over to the aisle of the store that had what he needed. As he checked out the different types of knobs, he sensed someone walking towards him.

'Shinji? Shouldn't you be in school?'

He turned around and saw that it was Mr. Hotaru. He just hoped that the security guard wouldn't think he was skipping school or anything.

'Hello, Mr. Hotaru!'

The older gentleman looked at Shinji questionably.

'Are you skipping school or something?'

'No, I wasn't feeling too well and then I remembered that I had to fix the apartments door, so I thought I'd get that out of the way.'

The security guard looked the boy up and down, studying the young boy.

'Well, you do look a little pale. I hope you get better soon.'

'Thank you sir, and thanks for not being…angry last night, I didn't mean to-'

'Why would I be angry? You probably needed some time to think after what happened at NERV; I was actually worried about you. I just didn't want to alarm my wife and Rei, so I spared them the details.'

'Oh, thanks…did you guys catch them yet?'

'No, I'm afraid not. The police are looking into it, so…'

The older gentleman's voice trailed off and he decided to change the topic.

'Well, enough of the darker side of life. How are you and Rei getting along?'

'Um, f-fine,' Shinji answered.

'Good, good. Shinji, I know this might be a little much to ask, but…Rei's had a tough childhood and she…well, she doesn't take to people so well. I just would like to ask if you wouldn't mind watching out for her. I know she's more open now, but in case anything should happen…'

'I promise sir, and she's really lucky to have you as a dad.'

'Thanks son. Oh, better go. Those lights aren't going to fix themselves, see you Shinji and get better.'

'Will do Mr. Hotaru!' the boy promised, waving the man off.

As kind man left, Shinji realised just how lucky Rei was. He wished he could have a father like that.

After purchasing a replacement doorknob as well as the other things he'd need for the repairing, Shinji made his way back home, his nerves slowly returning to their hyper levels.

Around the time he was supposed to cross the street, he suddenly moved out of the way to let a runner past. For some reason, Shinji's eyes absorbed the distinguishing mark on the man's neck, a dragon tattoo. Another weird thing was the terror he felt as the man dashed past, which was substantiated by the fact that two cops chased after the tattooed man.

'Geeze, kid, you coulda tripped him or something!'

The teenager stared at the dashing cop, what did he expect him to do? He was just a kid, he wasn't even athletic and he was expected to just stop a criminal?

Carrying the packet that he had wrapped around his wrist, he began to cross the road. As he crossed, his nerves came back with a vengeance. It was far too unsafe here, danger was all around him; he was in the middle of a kill zone!

Shinji was too busy feeling paranoid about the entire world to hear or see a speeding car coming right for him. Strangely, he somehow did notice it, as the driver slammed his brakes, knowing it was too late, but he failed to hit anything.

Looking up and down the street the driver muttered something about needing to quit drinking before driving off.

If he had stayed a little longer and had been more aware of what was going on above, he might have just heard a teenager's horrified, amazed and completely astounded whisper.

'Oh my God,' Shinji could not believe what he had just done.


	5. Chapter 4: Freak of Science

Chapter 4

"Freak of Science"

Break time at the school of Tokyo-3, a time for friends to mingle and also time for some nosiness in Hikari's case.

'So, Asuka are you feeling alright?'

'Of course I'm alright, why wouldn't I be?'

Asuka's tone masked her feelings, she wasn't really alright, but Hikari didn't need to know that.

'Well, you just seemed…angry when you saw Rei and Shin-'

'I don't care who that baka is friends with! Why should I?'

'Well, because…if you, hypothetically, liked him you would feel jealous, right?'

'Hah, that's some hypothesis!'

'But it's true, theoretically speaking.'

'In theory, yes, but practically impossible.'

Hikari rolled her eyes and smirked at Asuka's evasion. She couldn't believe it was so easy to get Asuka to talk about her feelings, well, theoretically anyway.

'Well, in theory, you might be worried that he went home, so I would just tell you that he should be fine.'

Asuka narrowed her eyes at Hikari; it was obvious what she was doing.

'Very funny, Hikari,' commented the German girl.

'Sorry, but I was just-'

'Enough on the baka already, the idiot's probably found someplace to crawl under like the little bug he is!'

[]

Little did she know; that on the side of a skyscraper, several stories up, clinging for dear life to the side of the building was Shinji Ikari.

'Oh my God!' the horrified boy said.

He had no idea how he had made it up so high, or better yet, how he had not fallen off the building. Somehow his hands were keeping him stuck fast, defying gravity itself.

'What-what's…how?'

Realising it would not be a great idea to remain on the wall for long; Shinji began to remove his one hand, very slowly, from the wall. He found that he was still sticking and apparently, in no danger of falling just yet.

'Whoa…'

The dark haired teen stared at his hand or more specifically his fingers. On the tips of his digits, he could just make out tiny hairs, but they looked a lot spikier than normal hairs. Maybe those hairs were making him stick?

Taking another look skyward, a thought crept into Shinji's mind. Could he make it to the top?

The boy wanted to rather not find out, but at the back of his mind a sudden urge to reach a higher point in his environment overwhelmed his fears.

Cautiously, he placed his hand back onto the wall, higher this time. He took his other hand off and did the same. Soon, he was doing something humanly impossibly. He was crawling up the wall, like a spider.

He just kept going, like a man possessed, until he made it to the top. Once at the edge of the building, he reached over and found the metal framework of a water tower. Gripping it tightly, he pulled himself up, unconsciously beginning to crush the leg of the tower.

Thankfully, he let go before the tower was sent falling to the street below from the loss of support.

'What going on!' the frightened boy cried out loud.

He was panting from fear as his nerves were completely fried at his point. He was so frightened that he did not fight back against the urge to start moving.

'ARGH!' cried out a terrified Shinji, as he was currently several stories above the rooftops of Tokyo-3.

He sailed through the air; his legs had propelled him an incredible distance. Each time he had jumped so far, he feared that he would fall to his death, but somehow, on a subconscious level, he always managed to land on the next rooftop safely.

This time it was on the roof of an apartment building, giving him an incredible view of the city and the sunset...

'Oh crap!'

He hadn't realised it was so late, Asuka was going to kill him for making her wait so long for food. This normal fear brought him back to his senses, pushing the odd urges dormant into some deeper part of his mind.

What was he going to do? What was happening to him? Why was he sticking to walls and jumping so high?

Thinking back, he remembered that this wasn't the first time weird things had started happening. The tea cups, the doorknob, his nervousness in open spaces…where those other freakish things he could do?

'What am I going to do? What am I going to do!'

Slumping down, his back pressing up against a ventilation unit, he stared down at his hands. While it was awesome in theory, having real…powers was too much. Would he start to change more, become a freak of nature…well, more so?

Who could he talk to that would be able to fix him? Father was a scientist, but the cold man would probably autopsy him rather than help…Dr. Akagi? No, he didn't really know her that well. Misato…she'd just tell him to start drinking.

The boy slowly sank into depression, realising he was going to remain a freak for the remainder of his life as he knew of no one who could help him.

Suddenly, the most obvious answer came to his mind.

'Duh, baka Shinji!' the boy face palmed himself, 'There's one person who might be sort of willing to help.'

[]

Shinji crept inside the apartment (through the front door) his breathing rather ragged from his fear and exertion, running all the way home had taken not as long as it usually did. He had been too afraid to do more jumping, it was too…weird.

'A-Asuka, um, I need to ask you something.' He called out.

Her door was thrown open suddenly, revealing a very angry redhead who stomped over to the terrified boy.

'Where the hell have you been, baka! I've been starving for over an hour while you were out skipping school!'

'Look, please Asuka just listen! I-I really need your help!'

She narrowed her eyes at the pleading boy; he looked pathetic when he begged.

'Oh, so you need my help again? Sorry, I'm too much of a snob to help. Ooh, I know maybe ask your friend with the blue hair, I'm sure she would love to help little baka Shinji.'

So Asuka was mad at him. Damn it, couldn't she be mad at him another time?

'Asuka, come on! I need somebody…smart, like you!'

'Pfft, yeah right. Too late baka, get started on dinner, Misato's gonna be late tonight.'

The redhead turned away, planning on getting more of her work done, but Shinji's hand snapped out in desperation, gripping her wrist.

'What the hell is wrong with you, PERVERT!' she cried out.

Her hand snapped out at Shinji, but his keen reflex's gave him an unfair advantage, allowing him to weave out of the way and still keep a hold on Asuka's wrist.

'Asuka, something's wrong with me! I shouldn't have been able to do that!'

'Damn right you shouldn't!'

Asuka lashed out again, using her feet and her free hand, but somehow Shinji kept out of reach even at such a close range.

He saw that he would have to force her to see what was wrong with him, so he let go of her wrist taking a step back. Seeing this, Asuka's rage flared, and she went flinging wildly at him, but hit the floor instead of her baka of a target.

'Wha? Where…?'

Confused Asuka picked herself up off the floor, where had Shinji gone?

'Up here.'

She tried to scream, but no sound came out. Shinji was stuck fast to the ceiling.

After explaining to Asuka that he had no idea how he got his abilities (as she called them), the redhead was disturbed and also intrigued at what happened to the boy.

'Okay, I'm going to need a blood sample.'

Shinji felt his blood drain from his face, like his blood was trying to find a place to hide, he hated needles.

'Um, c-can't you just take some hair?'

Asuka looked at Shinji with a face that made the boy feel small, very small.

'Sure, why not? I can tell why you're clinging to walls from a strand of hair, actually I can probably tell how big little Shinji is too.'

'Asuka, this isn't funny this is serious!'

'Exactly, dummkopf! Now quit being a baby, man up and let me take some blood!'

Thinking quickly, Shinji tried to find someway to get out of having a needle stuck into him.

'Uh, we don't have any syringes in the apartment, so...'

Asuka growled, but she soon smiled slyly when she thought of a place that did have syringes as well as everything else she would need.

'Fine, let's head down to NERV then.'

[]

A young woman in her early twenties looked at the two teens entering the lab in surprise. She didn't know that Asuka was going to be here at this time of the night.

'Asuka?' Maya asked, 'What are you doing here?'

'Oh, Maya…just having a look at my blood cultures, I think I forgot to set the temperature properly.'

Maya nodded believing the lie; then she looked at Shinji oddly.

'Um, is this your...um….' the petite woman was unsure whether she should complete her sentence.

Asuka's face went beet red when she figured out what Maya was getting at.

'Hell NO! I mean…he's just tagging along…it's not like that!'

Taking note to never assume anything with Asuka again, Maya bid farewell and left with haste.

This let the two teens have the whole lab to themselves, while Shinji gaped in awe at the size of the room, Asuka made her way to the supply cupboard.

She retrieved what she would need for investigating Shinji's change on a genetic level, which included an unnecessarily large syringe.

While Shinji examined the interesting setup, Asuka snuck up behind him (as best she could; given Shinji's sudden super senses).

'Hold still or this will hurt!'

Shinji yelped as Asuka forced him to a chair, or rather, he forced himself to take a seat (he didn't want to hurt Asuka with his newfound strength). Sitting there, Shinji swallowed in fear, Asuka was preparing his arm for the stabbing.

After a short while of filling the syringe with Shinji's blood, the redhead decided to poke some more fun at the dark haired boy.

'Just hold on, I need to get another syringe.'

A pale faced Shinji whimpered, 'W-wha-what?'

'Hah, you're such a sissy baka.'

Annoyed, Shinji rolled his eyes at the unnecessary joke.

'Can we just skip to the part were you fix me?'

Asuka had a very cruel smile on her face when she answered Shinji.

'I didn't know you want me to remove your man-parts, but since they aren't doing anything, okay.'

'Asuka will you stop it!'

'So you can dish it out but you can't take it, huh?'

The teenage boy grumbled and slumped back into the chair, deciding Asuka would work faster if he didn't say anything.

Several hours later, Asuka looked at Shinji with an odd expression.

'So, what is it? Can you make me normal with some chemicals or something?'

The German girl cleared her throat and bit her lower lip, deciding how best to put her findings.

'Shinji, have you ever been inside that room down the hall, the one that was robbed?'

Shifting uncomfortably in his chair, the blue eyed boy answered nervously.

'Um, m-maybe…once,' he answered as carefully as he could.

Asuka stared at Shinji in disbelief, the idiot.

'You baka…do you know what…Mein Gott!'

The redhead's words brought absolutely no comfort to the worried boy.

'What is it?'

Grabbing Shinji's arms, Asuka sent a whirlwind of questions his way.

'Did something bite you?' Did you inhale escaping gas? Is there anything else, any other changes that you've noticed? Tell me, baka!'

It took Shinji a while to absorb the questions and form answers, but he made it…eventually.

'I…I don't think anything…bit…oh.'

Tenderly, Shinji's fingers felt the back of his neck, searching for any inflamed skin.

'Oh? What's oh? Spit it out!'

Eyes going wide, Shinji gulped.

'I think something did bite me, is that bad?'

The young German scientist hung her head in annoyance and concern. Shinji being bitten by one of the test subjects explained the presence of radiation and alien genetics, but…what else would it do to him? Would it…kill him?

'Asuka, is something wrong with me? Am I going to d-die?'

Looking into the eyes of the boy that caused her a ton of emotional turmoil, Asuka took a deep breath and decided to tell it like it was.

'For the most retarded baka in the world, you're…very lucky.'

'Um, I am?'

'The spider, well I'm pretty sure it was a spider, that bit you was undergoing radiation treatments to allow for genetic manipulation. Somehow, its bite sent genes from itself into you and I'm guessing the radiation allowed those spider genes to integrate themselves into you.'

Shinji stared blankly at Asuka, not catching the whole of what she had just said.

'What exactly-'

'Ugh, it means that you've got…spider powers! You're now half-baka, half-spider do you get it now?'

'S-so, I'm…stuck like this?'

'Yes…well, maybe.'

He stared down at his hands, downtrodden and defeated. So he was going to remain a freak of science forever?

'Hey, look Shinji…I can…I'll work on a cure…I guess I owe you for all the food you've made, and all the laundry.'

With a sad smile, Shinji looked into Asuka's eyes. She wasn't so bad all the time, and she had been really helpful.

'Thanks Asuka.'

Striking a pose, the redhead placed her hands on her hips and grinned.

'See, you don't need to complain when you have the best looking, smartest and greatest scientist of NERV working for you.'

'I…I guess…you're really great Asuka.'

'Heh, you're not so bad yourself, baka Shinji.'

The two teenagers did not seem to take notice of how close they had been getting to one another. They didn't even notice the door opening or a certain alcoholic enter the room.

'I see you two are getting cosy.' A mocking voice said from the entrance of the lab.

Shinji's new senses barely had any time to react with the speed Asuka had shoved him, sending his chair rolling back and into a table.

'It…was…PERVERT!'

Asuka pointed a finger at the so-called pervert. The German girl could hardly believe that she and Shinji had been so close that they could have actually…internally she shivered; Asuka didn't even want to complete the mental sentence.

Misato just smirked at the two teenagers, when she had seen that someone was still in the lab, she would never have thought that it was Shinji and Asuka grabbing some "alone time".

'M-Misato, what are you doing here?'

'I work here, remember? So Shinji, guess I was too early, huh?'

'That's disgusting! Me and that…that hentai!' Asuka cried out, she did her best to appear disgusted at the thought.

'Whatever, let's just get down to the car.' Misato rolled her eyes at their antics.

'Um, are you driving Misato?' Shinji asked with worry.

'Yeah; why?'

The two teenagers shared a worried look with each other. Driving with Misato was a harrowing experience, to say the least.

[]

That night, Shinji couldn't get to sleep. While he was not so worried about what would happen to him, his mind wasn't completely at rest. What if Asuka was wrong? What if he started to change more? What if this was only the beginning? He was just a kid; he shouldn't have to deal with this!

He turned over; trying to get comfortable, but the thoughts wouldn't leave him. He growled and kicked off the sheets, sitting on the edge of his bed, he looked around his room for the only thing that would keep him distracted.

He smiled when he spotted it, his S-DAT, sitting on the desk just an arm stretch away. As he picked up his cherished player, he heard a soft noise. Stopping his movement, he listened more closely, trying to hear what that noise was.

'Mama…'

It was Asuka, probably speaking in her sleep. Shinji smiled and continued to retrieve his music player, but he stopped again. He had heard another noise, it sounded like…sobbing?

Asuka was crying? This made Shinji face a serious dilemma, should he use his S-DAT to tune out the sleep talk and his own demons or should he wake Asuka?

For a long time he thought about it, reaching out for his music player and then drawing his hand back.

Asuka's sobbing continued, as well as her cries for her mother.

'Please don't kill me.' Shinji begged as he got up from his bed.

He slid open his door, peering into the darkness for a split second, until the world suddenly took a green tint and appeared clear. Shinji chalked it up to another weird spider-power thing.

Carefully, he slid Asuka's door open and crept over to her sleeping form. She seemed very distressed in her sleep, a lot more than he had originally thought. Gritting his teeth, he steeled himself for the bravest thing he would ever do in his life: waking Asuka up. As gently as he could manage, he shook Asuka awake.

'Mm, wha…no…please, I don't want to…huh?'

Slowly, azure eyes revealed the dark surroundings…and a pair of red eyes staring down at her.

'Ah!' She screamed.

'It's just me, I'm sorry, you were having a nightmare and…'

'Y-your eyes! What the hell happened to your eyes?'

Shinji looked at Asuka quizzically, what was she going on about?

'Uh, well, I can see in the dark…what exactly happened to my eyes?'

'They're red!'

'Huh? Like Ayanami's?'

'Creepier. What the heck are you doing in my room anyway? Trying to take advantage of me!'

'I told you, I heard that you were having a nightmare, and I couldn't get to sleep so I thought I should…help you.'

Anger soon made its way to Asuka's face.

'I don't need your help!' seethed the German.

'I-I mean, I had to pay you back for helping me.' Shinji answered quickly.

'Whatever. Just leave me alone now.'

Asuka rolled over on her bed, turning her back to Shinji. Noting the cue to leave, Shinji stood up and went for the door, but stopped suddenly.

'Asuka…'

'What?'

'I only came in because I heard you…crying,' his last word came out as a whisper.

'You heard wrong.'

'Yeah, sorry,' Shinji left the room, leaving an uncertain Asuka.

She didn't know what to think about Shinji's intrusion, should she be angry or happy? And what did he mean about her crying? She never…her hand touched her cheek and she realised Shinji was right. She had been crying, but about what?

Asuka entertained the idea of asking Shinji, but she thought better of it, especially when she heard the baka sneaking out of the front door.


	6. Chapter 5: Guilt

Chapter 5

"My Fault"

In the darkness of night, on the streets of Tokyo-3, a young boy with a full mind walked.

'What the heck was all that about?' Shinji mused out loud.

Asuka had always been temperamental, to say the least, but to just lash out like that? He didn't know what to think, why was she so hard to figure out? She usually acted stuck up and full of herself, but he knew that there was more to her than that. Although, for some reason her nicer side rarely came out.

He sighed, trying to shrug off the thoughts on the redhead. He realized his life was a lot more complicated before his weird powers…before he was turned into a freak. Speaking of which, what was he going to do with them? Until Asuka figured out how to get rid of them, what was he going to do to in the meantime? He still got those nervous feelings in open areas, still got the weird tingling and he was pretty sure his hand sticking power thing was still working.

He shook his head again, maybe he should have stayed on the Asuka topic; it wasn't too complicated.

Eventually he realised he was walking in the direction of Rei's house, which got him thinking that maybe Rei was star gazing again. When he talked to her previously, it was like everything, all his problems, just slipped away. Yeah, Rei's house was definitely the place to…

The sudden sound of sirens caught his attention. Sending his gaze to the road; Shinji saw several patrol cars rush past him. As they passed, he felt an odd sensation, like something was wrong, very wrong. Without thinking anything more, he was suddenly running at top speed towards Rei's home, coincidently this was where the patrol cars were headed.

[]

Meanwhile, inside a luxurious skyscraper at the top floor staring out of the window stood Mr. Wilson Fisk. The large man had a hardened expression, but a small flicker of sorrow was just visible.

He didn't move from his position or change in expression when his assistant entered his office.

'It's done boss.'

The large man sighed softly, a grim expression on his face. Damn Gendo.

'You may leave, make sure those buffoons get the message' the large man ordered.

'You got it.'

As his subordinate left, Fisk looked down to the floor sadly and slowly walked to his desk. Taking a seat, he looked at a framed photograph that he cherished, the picture was of a small child, barely five years old.

'It is always the children who suffer…' the man sad softly.

[]

Shinji grew worried as he reluctantly took note that the police had stopped outside of Rei's house. She can't be hurt, anything but that. Rei was just starting to be happy at school. The boy stopped running, and slowly made his way towards the house. Neighbours had begun to gather outside, but the police kept them back.

Shinji was kept back as well, but he saw enough and right then he knew it would haunt him forever. Rei was being consoled by her foster mother, who was equally distraught, but Rei…she was covered in blood and she was crying her eyes out.

Shock overcame Shinji as the image of a crying Rei was burned into his mind forever and what was worse, was when he overheard the police talking, allowing him to piece together the traumatic experience Rei had been through.

'God damn gangs, what the hell did they want with an old timer?' an officer said out loud, disgusted with what had been done.

'Don't know, but I hope those bastards get what's coming to them,' another one offered his own thoughts.

'Looks like the work of the West Dragons. Geeze, poor guy put up one hell of a fight,' the detective looked at the remaining family; the old man must've loved them a lot.

Shinji barely held himself together, listening to the police, almost missing a crucial piece of information where the gang was normally spotted.

Mr. Hotaru was murdered?

This thought ran through Shinji's mind, along with it was the image of Rei drenched in her fathers blood, probably from trying to save the dying man. Inside, something snapped, something that kept all of Shinji's rage contained. The officer didn't have to worry; those murderers were going to get what's coming to them! He had the power…

Disappearing into the crowd, eyes going from grey-blue to red, Shinji did something that had frightened him in the past; he let the instincts take over.

[]

Inside a moderately run down building on the shadier part of Tokyo-3, a number of unlawful youngsters took this time to get some relaxation.

'Ow, damn!' one of them moaned, caressing his bruised cheek.

'Aw, what man? The old dude hurt ya?' one of the members of the West Dragons laughed at his fellow member.

'Shut up!' the bruised one snapped.

The other four sniggered at the injured ones expense.

'Hey, think we should go back there?' another suggested.

'Are you crazy? The cops are all over that place now, what we gonna do there anyway? We don't have another job for anyone… do we?'

'Just for a little fun, didn't you see that dude's daughter?'

'You sick pervert!'

They laughed at their own joke, they had made a lot of money today and maybe they would go back, the police couldn't hang around forever.

Unbeknownst to them; something was climbing down the wall of their building, something that wasn't quite human.

'Hey, think we'll hear from that Hammer dude again?'

'Hell, I hope so, its easy money. Why do you think he wanted some old guy off-ed anyway?'

'Dunno, maybe the dude saw something he wasn't supposed to'

As they indulged themselves to some alcohol, the smiles on their faces never wavered. It sickened Shinji or rather it sickened the part of him that was currently only an observer.

The other part that was in charge wasn't concerned with the smiles, it didn't matter how they looked, in the end they were prey.

What did matter, was how to trap them, the spider didn't have its usual weapon. As a side note, it would see to that later. Now how to trap them…the human side offered some insight into the environment, the lights.

Crawling around to the back of the building, the spider spotted what it needed. The electrical box was easily done away with.

Inside the building, the gang turned quiet as the power went out, their world was plunged into darkness.

'What the hell?'

'Shut up! What if it's the cops?'

'Nah can't be! We made a clean get away.'

Nervously, the small group of five retrieved what weapons they could, mostly guns and knives.

The spider crept inside, keeping watch on its prey. It would have laughed if it had seen the point in laughing. They wouldn't know what hit them.

The first was easy, silly creature held metal in its hands; it did nothing when it was beaten senseless onto the ground. The metal just clanged onto the ground as the owner also met the cold surface of the floor.

'Anybody hear that?'

'Hear what?'

'The-' he stopped as soon as he heard another thump and then another.

'Who's there?' A gang member screamed out, terrified at the sickening silence. How come no one else was answering him?

'ARRGH!'

A scream, a clattering knife, only one was left standing.

'WHO'S THERE!' he screamed, waving his gun around.

The spider knew to avoid the prey's sight, that weapon was dangerous. So it stalked behind the prey, keeping a close eye on it.

The gangster stumbled and tripped on something, something heavy, his fellow partner in crime. In terror, he picked himself up and ran…straight into the hands of the predator.

'NO, PLEASE!' he cried.

The spider kept a firm grip, but it felt the human side wanting something from the prey. The spider did not understand what it was, it was something called "vengeance".

'PLEASE DON'T KILL ME!'

The human side took over, letting the spider go dormant.

'Don't kill you? DON'T KILL YOU!' Shinji shouted, how dare this murderer ask to be saved?

'P-please!' the thug pleaded pathetically.

'What is so great about you, that gets you off the hook? Do you have a family?'

The thug started to sob in terror, only making Shinji angrier.

'You murdered somebody's father! You took away their only chance at happiness, and you want to live?'

During his questioning, Shinji had managed to get the gangster's back against a window. Said window was currently in pieces falling down four stories.

Holding the murderer in midair, just one drop away from death, Shinji asked one more question.

'Why!' he yelled.

'W-we…it-it was Ryu's idea! He-he was chased by cops a while back a-and some dude helped him out, a-and he was told that he had a job for him as payment…'

'You were paid to do this?' Shinji felt his anger recede somewhat, why would someone pay to have Mr. Hotaru killed?

'Y-yeah, Ryu's the one with the tattoo…on his neck!' the gangster prayed that his snitching would get him out of this alive.

'Tattoo on his…neck?' Shinji hadn't really noticed much when he had beaten down the thugs, it was mostly a blur, but for some reason he did remember a tattooed neck.

'_Geeze, kid, you coulda tripped him or something!'_

The thug was dropped to the floor, scrambling out of the room as soon as he realised he had just fallen a lot less than several stories. Leaving Shinji to remember a man with a tattoo running past him…he could have stopped him then, maybe…Mr. Hotaru would still be…no, it-it must have been a different guy!

His eyes scanned the dark room and to his horror, Shinji saw the unconscious form of the man with the tattoo on his neck, it was the same guy that had run past him. The same one that he could have stopped.

'It's…my fault…'

Horrified by what he perceived as his fault, Shinji fled from the building, leaving the unconscious gangsters to their slumber.

What had he done? Rei…she was so hurt back there and what she must have seen.

Somehow, the mournful boy had made it to the top of a skyscraper overlooking the city.

He stared for a long time at the city lights, clutching his knees. His mind replayed scenario after scenario of what must have happened at Rei's home. How Mr. Hotaru had fought off the attackers, bravely defending his family and then being gutted or shot, left to bleed out; Rei rushing to her dying foster father, trying to stop the bleeding, but ultimately failing.

That man had no special powers and he still gave of his best, and what did he, Shinji Ikari, do?

He whined about stopping a single thug, something he could have done easily if he had been paying attention to what was going on with himself. He had the power and…he had done nothing. All he had done so far was hurt those around him.

Asuka hated him, Rei…he would never be able to talk to her again and Misato was too busy drinking to care… His father thought him useless.

He should leave; he didn't need to be a burden anymore. Asuka would be able to concentrate on her work, Misato wouldn't get comments about being a slob and Rei would never have to see the one responsible for her father's death.

[]

Asuka lay in her bed wide awake. It had been hours since the boy had wondered off and her mind would not allow her to rest. She kept on wondering how she could have been so weak in her sleep to have actually cried. Another reason, one that she wouldn't admit to herself, was that she was actually worried about Shinji running off like he did or rather crawled off.

She heard a window being drawn open in Shinji's room. She realised he must have crawled in…ugh, creepy.

She slowly made her way to the room of the spider-boy and opened the door to find the room…empty?

'Hey, Shinji?' she called out softly.

The window was still open, letting the chilly night air in.

'Shinji, I heard you opening the window, now quit fooling around!'

Still receiving no answer, Asuka rolled her eyes and switched on the light. Shinji's usually tidy room looked like it had been ransacked.

Clothes strewn everywhere, his desk drawer left open were he kept his money and she couldn't find his cherished S-DAT player. Shinji never went anywhere without his music unless he was coming back home after a short while, did that mean that he had run away?

Asuka felt a surge of emotions and rushed to the window, sticking her head out, looking around for the wall-crawling boy.

'Shinji!' she called out again, louder this time.

Eventually, she grew tired of waiting for him to answer her calls and her rage took over, hiding her concern.

'Bastard!' she slammed the window shut and stormed off to her room. Her façade hid her true feelings of hurt and rejection well.

Shinji watched from the side of a skyscraper, wondering about his decision to run away. Why was Asuka so distressed? Probably because of all the chores she has now, a cruel voice inside him said.

Shaking his head, the boy made sure his backpack was properly secure. Crawling his way around the building, the lonely figure soon left the sight of the place he had come to call home. He did not think himself worthy of such a place anymore.

[]

Hours later, outside of the "residence" of the West Dragons, a crime scene was being investigated. This most likely had something to do with the building being set alight.

'Ah, Detective Ryoji,' greeted the lieutenant on scene.

The unshaven man gave the policeman a curt nod.

'Lieutenant, what do we have here?'

Motioning a hand towards the entrance, the Lieutenant led the detective on.

'Well, place was set alight last night and someone called it in. Fire Department arrived and put it out.'

The two entered the building and began climbing what was left of the stairs.

'After the fire was out, they sent some guys in and found…this.'

The detective eyes widened, his nostrils flared and he grimaced. Four carcasses, burnt to a crisp.

'So, any idea who they are?' asked Detective Ryoji.

'Yeah, members of the West Dragons,' answered the policeman.

The detective looked questionably at the cop.

'How do you know this for sure?'

'Found one of them, basically begged to be put in a cell.'

'That's a first.'

'Apparently he had the crap beaten out of him by some crazed lunatic with super human strength…or something like that.'

The detective furrowed his brow as he looked at the gruesome scene with a mix of disgust and interest. Remembering what the Dragons had done earlier in the night, the disgust wore off, replaced with sad satisfaction.

'Guess these guys got what they deserved…'


	7. Chapter 6: Anguish

Chapter 6

"Suffering of my choosing"

'Benjamin Hotaru will always be remembered as a hero, one who would do anything for his loved ones. He will be dearly missed…'

The man continued with his eulogy, but Misato didn't really follow it. She was more concerned with the wife and foster daughter that were left behind. Rei just sat there, staring at the casket, every so often a flicker of emotion would appear, but it was gone as soon as it came. Sadly, the purple haired woman realised that Rei was retreating back into her shell that she had only just come out of. Misato had seen the blue haired girl coming in and out of NERV even before she had foster parents, apparently the albino girl met with Mr. Ikari socially. Rei had always seemed…detached from the world, like she didn't know how to interact with others. Of course that all changed…but now, she was receding back and she probably wasn't going to be sharing her feelings for fear of losing someone close to her again.

This wasn't the only thing on Misato's mind, it had been a whole week since Shinji had disappeared and she was anguished by his absence. Even worse, she wondered how he kept out of Section-2's sight; it was like he had just disappeared into thin air.

Did it have anything to do with Mr. Hotaru? It was quite a coincidence that Shinji would disappear right after the night that the poor man had been killed.

This wasn't even the worst part. Asuka had been acting even more aggressive than usual; she had started a fight at school and had managed to get herself suspended. Misato sighed, as if she needed any more headaches.

With Shinji gone, it was like her old life again, filled with nothing more than beer and rage…along with the self-loathing. Why did she always screw-up her relationships?

[]

The apartment door to the Katsuragi Residence was thrown open violently, allowing an angered German girl entrance. She threw her school bag down in disgust, hating what it represented. Asuka didn't know what was going on with her, why was she so angry? It couldn't be because of that Baka running away…could it?

Just thinking about the dark haired boy made her blood boil.

'Stupid Shinji!' she screamed, punching the wall in anger.

The girl grimaced as she clutched her damaged hand, and bit back tears of pain that were not purely born out of physical injuries. Angrily, she kicked away the beer cans littering the floor, slamming her door shut.

Didn't that idiot care? She kept her mouth shut about his changes, she helped him home when he had fainted, she helped him with his homework and he just leaves?

Doesn't he care? Doesn't anybody care?

Slowly, her anger left, breaking her façade for a short moment. She was just an insecure teenager. All she wanted was somebody to understand her.

'Why do they always leave?' she whispered defeated, sinking to her knees.

[]

It rained as the casket was lowered into the grave it was the perfect weather for the sombre mood. Misato watched the casket go, she hadn't known Hotaru that much, but she still knew that he was…had been a really nice guy. He must've been something to have gotten Rei to come out of her shell…and to cause her to go back into it. Why was it always the good guys who died? Bad things happen and it seemed like they always would happen, like the Antarctic expedition…her father…

Misato turned her gaze away from the grave and towards the city. Something caught her eye, on a building close to the cemetery, something had moved.

'Must be seeing things…' she whispered, returning her gaze to the casket.

After a short moment of prayer everyone began to leave, except for Rei and Mrs. Hotaru. Misato eyed them both, wondering if she should offer them any help but her mind retorted with the cruel reminder of Shinji. She turned her gaze away from the mourning family and started heading towards her car.

A brief glance over the right shoulder earned Misato another stab in her heart; she was next to the grave of Yui Ikari, Shinji's mother.

'I'm so sorry…'

[]

Somebody knocked on the apartment door, causing Asuka to turn her attention away from her work. Not that she had actually done more than stare at it blankly for two hours.

'Hello, Asuka?' it was Hikari's voice on the other side.

Asuka's face suddenly became bright and cheery, her mask was on. She walked over to the door and opened it, revealing a worried looking Class Rep.

'Hey, Hikari!' greeted Asuka tried to appear as happy as possible, 'How's school?'

'Asuka, what's going on with you?' the concerned brunette asked her friend.

'Nothing, why do you ask?' asked Asuka casually.

'You hit Toji! You're lucky he didn't hit back!'

'Oh, please! He'll still be in working order if you really want him.'

Hikari turned red at the retort and decided to change the topic quickly.

'Where's Shinji?'

'I told you, I don't keep track of that idiot! I don't care where he is!' Asuka lashed out.

'Yes you do, that's why you've been acting out so much. You miss him…'

'Leave me alone.' it barely came out as a whisper; Asuka just shut her door, leaving a bewildered Hikari standing outside.

The poor girl didn't understand what was going on, Rei had been absent for the whole week, although that had been explained to her, but Shinji just disappearing? What was going on? Where was Shinji and why had he run away?

Dejected and full of worry for her classmates, Hikari reluctantly headed off home, praying that something would help her friends.

[]

'_- as a man I'm flesh and blood I can be ignored I can be destroyed but as a symbol, as a symbol I can be incorruptible, I can be everlasting.'_

Shinji continued to watch the movie with mild interest, something about it kept pulling him in. Maybe it was the guilt the main character felt, maybe it was the fact that even a fictional character was better than him. This guy didn't have any spider abilities, and he still did the right thing…

The boy slumped back into his seat, it had been…a week? He was almost surprised it had been seven days, it felt longer. He was getting into trouble now, he was running out of money and rooftops were the worst places to sleep, not that he really cared.

He had been far too busy analysing himself. Every way he looked at it, he was like his father, causing pain in people's lives and he didn't even try. Every night, he was haunted by the image of a blood drenched Rei, crying it was his fault. He had taken somebody's father away from them…taken their happiness.

He was an Ikari then, stealing happiness from others.

'_I have no use for you…'_

Those had been the last, cold words he had heard his father say to him. He had only been four years old.

He tried to shake his depressing thoughts away and concentrate on the movie, the guy was making himself a mask and something about that intrigued Shinji for some unknown reason.

[]

A test tube shattered, spilling its contents onto the floor, which was in the process of being eaten up by the acidic liquid.

'Shiest!' Asuka growled.

Without even looking at the redhead, Ritsuko Akagi, Asuka's "boss" of sorts, continued her work on the computer with annoyance.

'Do you mind not doing that, it costs a lot to replace the floor' Dr. Akagi said dryly.

'Ugh, whatever!' snapped the German girl.

The doctor rolled her eyes, coming to decision. Enough was enough.

'Go home,' Ritsuko said simply, she knew that Asuka wasn't going to get anything done today.

'Excuse me?' the surprised redhead asked.

'Go home, and get over whatever it is that's bothering you.'

'What the hell is wrong with you people? Nothings wrong with me!' Asuka screamed, angered by the suggestion.

'Tell that to the four test tubes' Dr. Akagi quipped, continuing her work on the computer.

Asuka's face contorted with rage, she ripped off her lab coat and tossed it to the floor. 'Fine!' she yelled, 'Do it without me!'

Ritsuko rolled her eyes as the German girl stomped off.

'Teenagers' the doctor muttered.

[]

In a dark, depressing and downright disturbing room, a small meeting was taking place.

'Any news, Dr. Akagi?' the head of NERV asked in his monotonous speech pattern.

'Well, I let the Asuka off work today, she was exceptionally moody' the doctor explained, downtrodden by Gendo's usual routine of what was happening at work.

'The cause?' asked Gendo, his expression didn't change at all.

'Misato seems to think it has to do with the disappearance of your son…speaking of which, has anybody found him yet?'

'It does not matter, what matters is that the scenario goes along as planned when the time comes' Gendo shrugged off the doctors attempt to get an emotional reaction out of the cold Commander.

'But…very well sir' Dr. Akagi left the room, but took one last glance at the emotionless Commander, didn't he even care about his own son?

'Is there something else, Dr. Akagi?'

It seems that she had stared at him too long and still no emotional reaction.

'No, sir,' with that said, Ritsuko left the room, feeling the temperature beginning to rise gradually as soon as she left.

[]

'Argh! Stupid blonde! Stupid…argh!' cursed a German girl.

Asuka was in a foul mood when she got home that night; everything around her was falling apart. First it was school, with that stooge Toji asking what she had done with Shinji, making stupid jokes, then that stupid blonde doctor.

'Asuka, what the hell is going on with you?'

Misato was sitting at the table, drinking as usual; she had been drinking progressively more for the past week.

'Nothing!' yelled Asuka.

How dare that drunken slob ask her what's wrong! She was the one who drank her problems away!

'Asuka, you got suspended from school!' Misato said.

'So? I've finished college! I don't need your lower grade education!' Asuka yelled back, her anger peaking.

'You know that you need to be in school, otherwise you won't be allowed to work at NERV anymore!'

'Screw NERV!'

With that said, Asuka slammed her door shut, entering the solitude of her room.

Misato frowned and groaned as she heard the German girl tear her room apart.

'Shinji…where are you?' the emotionally exhausted guardian of the two teenagers whispered.

She downed another can of Yebisu, trying to keep the tears back.

Was it her fault that he had run away? Was she really so pathetic at being responsible?

Shinji had been through so much and all she had done was make it worse.

[]

Maya Ibuki walked cheerfully into the lab of Ritsuko Akagi.

'Hello Sempai!'

'Oh, hello Maya,' the doctor greeted her other assistant warmly, 'need something?'

'Yes, I'm just looking for a flash drive I misplaced.'

The petite brunette soon noticed the lack of volume in the lab.

'Where's Asuka?'

'Sent her home, she was in one of her moods again.'

Maya frowned. Poor Asuka, ever since Shinji had disappeared she had been acting out. Misato was also taking it pretty hard; she had been in a sombre mood when she had explained the situation to the technician.

'Hey, how is Patient Zero?'

'Hm?' Ritsuko looked over previous assistant with a furrowed brow, 'oh, he escaped again. Made it through the air ducts, security found him before he could get out.'

Maya giggled, remembering their mysterious Patient Zero's quirkiness. She continued searching for her missing flash drive

'Mm, not here…'

Maya was just about to leave, when she spotted a vial of blood near a microscope. Remembering the visit Asuka and Shinji had had a while back; she guessed it was probably one of Asuka's blood cultures.

'Um, Sempai, Asuka left out her blood culture where does it go?'

This time the doctor stopped her work on the computer.

'Blood culture?'

'Yes, this one.'

Ritsuko eyed the vial of blood with a mix of confusion and wonder.

'…I'll put it away, thank you Maya.'

'Alright, see you later Sempai.'

As soon as the brunette left the room, Ritsuko retrieved the vial. She raised an eyebrow, no label. What was Asuka doing?

Curiosity overwhelming her, the doctor took a minute amount of the blood to view under the microscope.

'My God…'

Dr. Akagi grabbed the nearest pen and paper she could find and began taking notes.

'This is…human and…something else…arachnid maybe?'

Staring in disbelief, Ritsuko took another sample of the blood. This one was going to be used in the number of analysis machines that NERV had and it was going to tell her exactly what was in it, because if her hunch was right…everything that had been planned was going to move along much faster. Perhaps Gendo might finally give her the recognition she deserved.


	8. Chapter 7: Home again

Chapter 7

"Home again"

'Hey look, Ayanami's back!'

A small group of girls dashed towards their blue haired friend, hoping to get some answers.

Rei barely reacted to the maelstrom of questions she was asked.

One of her friends, a girl by the name of Megumi, realised the lack of response and grew worried.

'Rei, are you alright?'

The crimson eyed girl looked up at Megumi with almost no emotion.

'I…wish to be alone for a while.'

Her friends seemed hurt by the emotionless statement, but Megumi decided it would be best to just respect her wishes.

'Well, okay then Rei.'

The three left, leaving the albino girl all alone under the tree on the school field.

Rei felt so many emotions, most of which she didn't understand. She didn't know what to do about them; these feelings were so alien and so powerful. All that the girl wanted was to speak with her foster father one more time; she'd give anything for just a moment.

The memories of the horrible night still haunted her. She could still feel the warm blood on her fingertips as it seeped out of her father's chest. She could still remember the his heart beat slow to a crawl and stop, never to beat again.

She looked up at the sky, looking at the white clouds, a small tear rolling down her cheek.

'Why?'

[]

Shinji stood at the train station, staring at the tracks. The place was deserted at this time of the morning. The train was still half an hour away. It gave him time to decide his fate.

Maybe…if he stood in front of that train…he could end it all. Asuka would be happy without him, Misato won't be bugged with comments on her alcoholism and Rei…she would have the one responsible for her pain gone for good.

Shinji stared at the tracks. Could he do it? Was it really that easy?

He wanted to…but would his…other side allow him?

His mind was a mess of thoughts and emotions. Being turned into a freak of nature could do that to a person.

His mind wrestled with itself. The rational side told him he was wrong, people did care and he wouldn't make the pain go away if he killed himself. His emotional side was such a mess that he could barely figure out what hurt more, the guilt or the loneliness.

His eyes went wide suddenly; his head snapped around, somebody had screamed for help.

He shook his head, now wasn't the time to get distracted, he had to finish…he had to make the pain go away.

The scream grew louder and more desperate, it sounded like a woman. Why was it so loud, why was it making him feel so much more… guilty?

The screaming continued, and Shinji came to realise something. If he didn't help her, no one else would. He would be getting someone hurt because he was only concerned with himself…again.

After a moment of indecision, his face took on a determined expression, this time he wouldn't let down anyone else!

[]

'Commander' the blonde doctor called out to the cold man.

'Yes?'

Lugging her laptop along with her, Ritsuko readied the computer.

'I think you should see this.'

Making the screen face the commander, she waited patiently for Gendo to read her findings.

Gendo would have appeared surprised at the information, if he hadn't spent years learning to hide his emotions.

'Where did you obtain the test subject?'

'I didn't, I believe Asuka was using human blood to test its effects.'

A small pause ensued as Gendo pondered more on what this meant.

'How soon can you apply this to the ADAM project?'

Ritsuko wore a grin of pride and satisfaction.

'I can begin now; we may be able to jumpstart the scenario in less than a year now.'

'Then you may begin. Make sure that none of your findings are leaked. Keep them on the MAGI for safekeeping.'

'Very well Commander.'

Ritsuko quelled the urge to beam with pride. Thanks to Asuka, everything was going to work out perfectly.

[]

A young girl, in her late teens with jet black hair and emerald eyes filled with fear watched her attacker grip her blouse.

'If you don't shut the hell up…'

He used his knife to trace the skin on her neck, making his threat very clear to her.

She sobbed softly, quietly begging him to leave her.

As his hands began to venture, a miracle happened.

'Leave her alone.'

The voice wasn't loud or threatening, it was soft but it held a touch of subtle rage.

Her attacker let go of her relieved form, so that he may see what idiot would dare interfere. What he saw made him laugh.

'You're tough for a little guy, huh?'

His cruel laughter filled the silence of the alleyway.

The girl looked at the figure standing in the distance; it was just someone in a hoodie, from what she could see of him he must have been rather young or just really short.

'Just leave, because no one else is getting hurt anymore, not when I'm around.'

Her attacker chuckled, readying his knife in his hand.

'Funny thing about that, I think someone is going to get hurt, especially when you're around.'

What happened next was almost impossible to comprehend. The thug had rushed the short Samaritan and was about to drive his knife through the boy's stomach, but the boy just leapt over him, grabbed the thug's jacket and threw him into a wall.

Seeing his opponent was still hanging onto his last thread of consciousness, the boy walked over to the slumped thug.

'Agh…what…agh!' the thug groaned in pain, he had never been thrown with such brute force in his life.

Hoisting the creep up, the boy stared menacingly into the eyes of the thug.

'You're lucky.'

One punch to the face later and the thug was most definitely out for the count, lying like some discarded piece of trash on the filthy ground.

Overcome with emotion, the girl hugged her saviour, who stiffened at the sudden contact.

'Oh my God, thank you! Y-you're a real hero!'

She felt the boy slowly let go of her, she could almost feel the sadness emanating from him.

'I…wish I was.'

Before she could ask why he didn't see himself as a hero, the boy jumped up and crawled on the wall of the building, all the way to top, disappearing from sight.

'W-wow…'

The girl was too stunned by the inhuman feat to do anything more than gape.

[]

Stepping into her office, Misato groaned at the paperwork on her desk. This was insane. She had thought that leaving the police for a job at NERV would make her life easier with a diminished amount of paperwork. This idea turned out to be not so great; the only good thing was that NERV paid better.

The Head of Security slumped into her chair, behind a mountain of paperwork.

'Why do I need to handle all this crap again?'

'Cos it's your job,' a voice said, out of nowhere.

Leaping out from behind her desk, gun pulled from its holster, she steadied her aim at…NERV's freelance electrician. Seeing that the 24 year old was not a threat to anyone, she put her firearm back in its place.

'Damn, Max. Don't do that.'

The shocked electrician put on a nervous smile as he brushed his long black hair out of his eyes.

'Sorry, just fixing you're A/C. Thought you'd want it back on ASAP.'

She smiled a little at that, it was rather nice of him to fix it so soon. It had only just stopped working a few hours ago.

'Yeah thanks, sorry about that. I'm just a little jumpy nowadays.'

Putting away his tools into his box, the young handyman gritted his teeth as he sought courage.

'Maybe…coffee, down the road at the café will calm you down?' he suggested.

Misato would have accepted, but with Shinji gone and still no word on how the robbery had happened right under their noses, she just felt it would be an unnecessary distraction.

'Thanks, but…right now, I've got a lot of stuff to do.'

'Oh…well, okay then.'

Max lifted his toolbox off the floor, and hastily left the room.

Upon his exit of Misato's office, the electrician berated himself under his breath.

'Hell, why would she even want to go out with a loser like me?'

The young man continued on his way to the elevator, stuck within his own thoughts of self-loathing, he only realised someone was leaving the elevator when he bumped into them.

'Whoops, sorry bud.'

'Yeah, sorry,' Max replied, taking in the other mans appearance.

The man had his hair in a ponytail and an unshaven face, as well as an air of confidence around him.

As the man left, Max spotted something on the guy's belt, a badge.

'A cop? Bet the ladies just love him,' the depressed electrician whispered as the doors closed shut.

'Hey there, Misato! Long time no see,' a cocky voice called out.

The purple haired woman grimaced, there was no way it could be him. A look over her paperwork told her that her worst nightmare had come true.

'Kaji?' a shocked Misato said.

'Yes, miss me?'

'No, what the hell are you doing here?'

The detective smirked at her, leaning back against the filing cabinets as he explained.

'Well, I got told to tell NERV how far along we got with that robbery…so, I thought I would go the extra mile and tell you in person.'

'Lucky me,' Misato groaned.

Kaji gripped his heart as if he had been injured.

'Oh Misato, you wound me!'

'Just start talking.'

'Skipping the foreplay again? Very well…'

Going red, Misato wondered whether she should get her gun ready.

'So far, it seems it was somewhat professional. The recordings of the robbery were somehow deleted, leading me to think that this may have been an inside job or someone with a lot of money.'

'Like who, the Kingpin?' Misato joked.

'Well, maybe. We don't know exactly what was taken, Dr. Akagi was very vague.'

'Your womanising needs some touching up then.'

'Perhaps,' Kaji grinned at Misato, who rolled her eyes in response.

'Well, thank you, you can go now.'

Seeing he was not going to get any other reaction from his ex, Kaji made for the door.

'Oh, and there is something else that you may be interested in.'

'What now?'

'That security guard who was murdered, Hotaru, we found the guys responsible.'

'I hope you used excessive force on them.'

'Well, it seems that somebody had already done that before we found them.'

Cocking an eyebrow, Misato grew intrigued by this new information.

'Who did it?'

'We don't know, strange thing is, that they seemed to have been beaten until unconscious and then somebody lit the place up like a Christmas tree.'

'If they were burned, how did you know that they were beaten?'

'Found one of them alive, and pretty shaken, something about a crazy teenager…oh, well until next time.'

'Yeah, next time.'

Kaji left her office, leaving Misato thoughtful. Who would pull a stunt like that on some gang bangers? Beating them unconscious and then burning them alive, it sounded like a vigilante, but what connection did they have with Hotaru?

Misato then realised that Rei visited the head of NERV often, could he have paid someone to do such a thing?

There was not a doubt in Misato's mind about the answer, but it didn't make her feel any better.

[]

Sitting alone in the dark of night, on top of a gargoyle was Shinji Ikari. The boy was confused and trying to figure out what next to do.

'If I go back home…would Misato and Asuka want me back there? And if I go back to school, Rei…oh my God, I'm such a screw up! Why can't I do anything right!' the boy yelled into the night air.

That girl he had saved thought he was hero, it would have been funny if…if the reality wasn't so painful.

'Damn it, what the hell am I going to do? I can't keep on living on the streets, I don't have enough money and I…I'm so alone.'

Leaning against the cool wall of the building, Shinji looked up at the sky, his eyes tearing up, as if searching for an answer there.

He stared for a long time, until his thoughts somehow brought him an answer.

'_It is who you are and what you do, that makes you you're own man__.'_

'_Y-you're a real hero…'_

Could he do that? Mr. Hotaru had been adamant about being your own person, and not judging yourself by the acts of others.

With a look of determination, Shinji realised that there was only one choice to make, and a promise that he had to keep.

'I will make sure no one else gets hurt again, so long as I have the power…I have the responsibility to do the right thing.'

[]

Asuka grimaced at the sight of instant food that she had retrieved from the microwave. It was nearing midnight and her stomach had won the debate with her taste buds.

She said several words in German that were probably not used by the more civilised folk who spoke the language.

While obtaining the utensils for eating the so called food, Asuka heard the front door creak open.

'I thought you weren't coming back til…'

The dish that she had held smashed on the floor, the redhead had let go when she saw who had come in.

Shinji stood there, looking back at her with guilt in his eyes and she could tell something was different about him, aside from the dirty clothes.

'Hey Asuka, you need something to eat?'

Feeling two urges overcome her body, Asuka walked over to Shinji and stopped right in front of him, staring right into his eyes.

The slap came out of nowhere, the boy could feel his cheek was bruising but he knew he deserved it. It had also taken an incredible amount of will power to not move out of the danger zone.

The German girl turned and went into her room, but not before uttering a single word. One that Shinji hadn't heard in a week.

'Baka…'

[]

Author's note: Part 1 of this story is finished, I'm gonna take another leave of absence from Fanfiction due to my final exams coming up next week. Sorry to just up and leave again, but I will be back as soon as possible. Reviewing will get me going faster with my other stories as always.

Thanks again for reading, and please do leave some idea's or anything that you wish to share.

P.S Just an answer for those wondering, I'll leave the pairing somewhat hard to determine in the later parts of the story. Although, it's already kinda obvious.


	9. Epilogue

Epilogue

_Red Eyes_

Rei Ayanami sat in a solemn silence within the chilly courtroom next to her mother. The widow had lost the usual cheer in her emerald eyes, and her black hair seemed to have lost its shine. The one responsible for this sat in front before the judge.

The prosecutor stood up and gave his speech to the jury. He made it sound like he understood everything his clients had been through. He didn't. This was just another day at work for him. The albino girl despised the lawyer who pretended to be such an understanding person, but most of all; she hated the monster who was being charged.

She cast a look at him, a far cry from the giddy gangster with so much to prove as he had been weeks before, when she looked at him now she saw a frightened child. Her attention shifted to her foster mother, whose warm hand clasped her own. Her mother needed support, she needed help. When Rei had needed someone to help her, her father had been 'd taught her how to feel and let her know what it was like to be loved and cared for. Now she had to repay that debt.

The judge declared the trial over for the day. Must have been something the prosecutor had said, Rei hadn't paid much attention. Everyone present got up and left, leaving the soon to be convicted felon to slump into despair. Rei didn't care. She hoped he suffered every minute just like she had and still did.

Mother and daughter left the courtroom in silence. There was nothing much to say. But the mother had to ask something. Her voice was soft and miserable, 'Rei, this is…hard to say but, if you don't want to stay with me, then…'

Rei was surprised by this question. Didn't her mother want her? 'You want me to leave?' she asked in her soft, almost neutral tone.

'No, no, I know you and Ben were very close, closer than I could get to you.' She sniffed and smiled sadly, 'Ben was always like that, able to understand people so easily. I just don't want you to feel you have to stay. I know it sounds horrible but I-'

'You gave me the chance to know what a family is, and…he wouldn't want me to leave someone I cared for hurt and alone.' The albino replied.

'Thank you.' Her voice wobbled as the woman struggled with her emotions. She was not like Rei. She couldn't hide them from the world.

Rei hugged her mother back, in a tense and hesitant way, but it was enough to calm the woman. It also brought a much needed sense of safety and warmth to the teenager, something she'd been missing ever since that horrible night.

'When I'm gone, don't despair. Rejoice in the cherished memories we shared and that we knew each other.' Rei whispered.

The raven haired woman was still teary eyed but a faint smile emerged on her face when she heard the words her late husband would have said. 'Thank you Rei.'

While Rei and her mother shared a sorrowful, yet tender, moment something truly awful was about to happen later that day. Some might call it poetic justice and others may call it karma but no matter which side a person prescribes to some things are just morally wrong.

A policeman with a distinctive moustache and shifty eyes shoved the murderer into a deserted cell. The shove sent the skinny gangster to the floor, face first. Maybe if there were people around, someone would have intervened. Unfortunately for the low life, he was out of luck.

'Ugh!' he grumbled, scrabbling to his feet, rubbing his skinned elbow.

'You're a real dumbass, ya know that kid?' the cop pulled out something from his pocket, a syringe.

Seeing the intent behind the officer's eyes, the thug tried to talk his way out. 'Look, I-I know I did something-'

The officer stopped him, 'oh save it, I don't care about the dead guy. Business is business.' The cop checked the syringe, nothing was in it. Perfect, he thought.

The gangster looked dumbly at the man, 'b-but you're a cop. You're supposed to care about-'

Again the man interrupted him, 'heh, I'm not a cop kid. I just know how to look like one.'

'If you're not a cop then…oh god,' realization hit him. If this man wasn't upholding the law then he was going to break it, probably hired by the same guy who had hired him to murder that old man. In the end, he wasn't going to be some big time gangster, he was just a loose end, a pawn.

'Well, business is business.' The doppelganger said one last time.

No matter how much he screamed in protest, cried for help no one could save him. One injection, painfully administered under a fingernail, sent a lethal air bubble coursing through his arteries. Later, his body would be discovered in that same cell and the officer who had carried out the murder would be found to have been, mysteriously, in two places at once.

Shinji Ikari sat in his room. On his bed lay the hoodie he had worn when he had run away from home. It was also the same one he had worn when he saved that woman. Opposite the hoodie lay the recently bought, jet black mask with tiny holes for his eyes. In his hands, he held a pair of large sunglasses with a glaring red tint. It was the most apparel he'd bought this month.

Using his impressive strength, and precision born of his sensitive touch, he broke the frame of the glasses, leaving the lenses unharmed. Removing them from the wrecked mess of plastic he held them in his palm, his reflection staring back. Picking up the mask, he placed the lenses over the eye holes. It would work.

Moments later, he stood in front of the full length mirror in the bathroom, thankful that nobody was home just yet. The reflection in the mirror glared back at him, crimson eyes curved into a menacing scowl. The red and black hoodie made him look a bit bigger than normal, just enough to allow for his identity to be more obscure.

He stepped out onto the balcony. The people on the cold, dark street below were completely oblivious of what was going on above them. Crouching on top of the railing with an abnormal sense of balance, he took a deep breath. No going back now, he thought. Still, some part of him badgered on about backing out. Just run away, forget about it, the voice said. The images that ran through his mind reminded him that there was no running away. Not now, not ever.

'Hello, I'm home!' Misato called out as she slipped her shoes off. She couldn't quite see the balcony and Shinji wasn't going to answer. She tried her luck again, calling for the boy once more, 'Shinji, hello? I hope you remember that you're still grounded!'

A small part of him laughed at that last line as he leapt from his perch. He scaled the wall he'd landed on, opposite Misato's apartment. Onto the roof and off into the night ran the hooded boy.

The lean silent figure bounded and crawled, searching for his chance at redemption. He may never find it he might never be forgiven for his neglect that night. The way he saw it, it didn't matter. In the end, an eternal truth remained. That with great power; there must also come, great responsibility!

-End-

Shinji Ikari is not done yet, there is still much to do. NERV is busy with shady experiments and only one teenage spider in red can stop them! Wait for the posting of _Scarlet Web_ to read more! (Be prepared for a rather long wait though!)

Well, that's it so far. Not much of an update, but figured I'd let you guys know I wasn't giving up. If you want to share ideas or anything then please don't hesitate to PM or review. Thanks for reading!


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